Sermon St E 9.45 11July 2021 Trinity 6 P10 (Sea Sunday) Great Salvation         Ps85v8-end            Amos7v7-15                        Ephesians1v3-14            Mark6v14-29

What an amazing short passage we have read this morning from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Christians.
Paul visited Ephesus, then a thriving port city on what is now the west coast of Turkey, on his third missionary journey, and where he then spent some three years preaching, sometime between AD 52 and 57 (Acts 19).

He wrote this powerful letter during his Roman imprisonment, perhaps in the year AD 62 (Eph3v1). Although there seems to have been no specific problems that needed to be addressed in the Ephesian church at that time, Paul clearly wished them to know how Christ had reconciled all creation, and all peoples, to the one true and Holy God, through Jesus redemptive death on the cross of Calvary.

According to the shorter Westminster Catechism, ‘the chief purpose of us men and women is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever’, and I think that is a pretty good way to summarise our few short verses this morning.

Those few verses are just overflowing with, not just great theology, but with the amazing grace offered to us through the eternal gospel of truth.
Paul introduces these few verses with a similar prayer to that used to begin first-century Jewish prayers, and similar to an introduction that is used today, “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe.’

Paul then goes on to show how God our Father had planned our reconciliation, the reconciliation of us humans with our disobedient and rebellious hearts, from before even the very foundation of the world. God knew that we humans, although created in His image, would not naturally be obedient and observant of His intended and best ways for us. That was so graphically portrayed in the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. Even though God walked with them in the cool of the evening, they still disobeyed His command to them, not to eat of the fruit of the tree.
And many people today, perhaps most people, still do not walk with God, and follow His best ways for humanity, so is it any wonder that the world is in such a mess, full of divisions and violence?
The method of our reconciliation was to remain a clouded mystery, a mystery into which the prophets of old longed to look, until the mystery was finally revealed in the fullness of time, revealed by the incarnation of God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the long promised Messiah.

Jesus was destined, and chose, to accomplish that reconciliation to our Holy God, as Paul reminds us, by shedding His most precious blood, to my mind the most costly substance in the entire universe. Thereafter our trespasses would be forgiven if we confess them in penitence and faith, putting our trust and faith in Jesus alone.

But far more than that, the age-old curse that has hung over all humanity since the fall, that of death, has now been replaced by our adoption as God’s Children, and the promise of eternal life. As His true sons and daughters, we can now become holy and blameless before our Holy God and Father. We are set free to praise God for His glorious grace towards us

I hope and trust that the promises that Paul describes in these wonderful verses, gives to each one of us something to sing and shout about, to sing and shout about with joy and thanksgiving.

And what can you now look forward to? Paul says that we share in every spiritual blessing that Jesus has on offer to us, spiritual blessings that flow from, and are kept for us in heaven itself. I wonder what you may understand, and make of, that phrase? It is well worth pondering.

The spiritual blessings that Paul alludes to here may reflect the love, joy and peace that now come to us who believe through God’s heavenly grace, and His Holy Spirit. Have we, do we, experience those in our lives?

But Paul is also referring to something much deeper and greater. He is most likely referring to the blessings that we are to share with Jesus throughout eternity as we live and reign with Him. We can but only begin to imagine what they may be.

Paul also shows us that it is God’s purpose to remove, to eradicate, the divisions that have long divided the human race, and how we need that.
God’s ultimate purpose is to unite all things, things both in heaven and things on this earth, in our Lord Jesus Christ.
But I fear that will have to wait for the fullness of time, that time when God will inaugurate a new created order as John tells us in his revelation.

But as we wait for this our glorious hope, and look around our present world, we see that not all things are well, they are far from it. But the hope given to Julian of Norwich in her vision does ring true, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”.

But at present not all is well, as there is so much suffering, exploitation and worse.
In many parts of our world, under a growing number of oppressive regimes, especially our Christian brothers and sisters, those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus, put their lives into the hands of our Lord, there is outright persecution. I want to tell you one story from Algeria.

Algeria is ranked 24th on Open Doors world watch list for the hardest place to be a Christian. Trans Word Radio, broadcasting the gospel message into that region, relates this story they received from a young woman named Illi.
Illi was born and raised in a non Christian household, but accepted Jesus as her Saviour without her family’s knowledge, and listened to TWR to grow in that faith. Her family members were religious fundamentalists, especially her father and two brothers.
Her mother however, was more tender hearted, and noticed the change that came over Illi when she became a believer. She asked Illi, “What has happened to you, my daughter? Your look has changed.”
Illi responded, “Are you sure you like the change that God has brought about in me?”
Her mother responded, “Yes; I too, would like to have the wonderful loving eyes that you now have.”
Illi boldly declared, “What you see in me is the wonderful Aissa, Jesus, to whom I have given my heart and my life.”
At these words, her mother fell to her knees, and her eyes filled with tears of joy. She said, “I’d also give my life to Jesus, but if your father and brothers found out about this, they would certainly kill us.”
While Illi and her mother were talking, they realised her father was standing behind the door and had been listening to their conversation. He came out of hiding and saw the two women trembling.
He smiled and said, “Do not be afraid. We are not those who kill, but those who have been led into error by our religion.”
He turned to his wife and said, “I know that our daughter has been listening to the radio in secret. But I noticed the peace of God in her, so I decided to let her be”.
Then Illi’s mother cried out, “Blessed be Christ, the Lord of lords, the God of all god’s, who breaks hearts of brass and fills with tenderness and love.”
Illi’s father heart was touched immediately. Her brothers were surprised to see that their father had changed his cape, which is a traditional way of indicating the adoption of a different faith in their culture.
They responded also, their faces lit up and they said, “Only Jesus can change our sadness into joy, so let us adore him with all our hearts”.

So we see that even in the midst of great persecution and resistance to the gospel truth, God is still calling out a people to follow, and to be faithful to Him. We must continue to pray for the many others who find themselves in similar situations, torn between faith and safety from persecution.

I trust that all of us here this morning have set our hope on the forgiveness and salvation promised to us in Christ, and can stand alongside our persecuted brothers and sisters where ever they may be located.

And for us who have done that, put our faith and hope in Jesus, Paul tells us something amazing also happens in the spiritual realm. Something unseen by us, although like Illi it should be seen in our eyes, God sends the seal of His Holy Spirit upon us.

That idea of a seal, would have been easily understood by those listening to Paul’s letter when it was read in Ephesus. They would have seen that as the port traded in timber, as the timber was purchased each piece of timber was marked by the seal of its new owner, showing to whom it now belonged. And that is why God marks each of us believers with the seal of His Holy Spirit. It shows in the unseen realm to whom we now belong, we have been purchased for God through the costly blood of our Lord Jesus.
I pray that these simple reflections on those wonderful words of Saint Paul, will inspire and encourage us all to walk more closely the pilgrim path God has set out for each one of us.

To help you also do that, I want to mention an app which you who use a tablet or smart phone may wish to download.
Although many are not able to join in our services of morning and evening prayer in church, a small app called lectio365 has an uplifting reflection set for the time of morning and evening prayer each day. If you try it I am sure you will find it to be a real blessing.

Let us pray: the shorter Collect for this 6th Sunday after Trinity
Creator God, you made us in your image;
may we discern you in all that we see,
and serve you in all that we do;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Saviour and coming King.         Amen

Sermon St Peter’s 9.30 4 July 2021 Year B         Trinity 5 P9 Jesus in Nazareth
(Ezekiel 2v1-5)            (Ps123)                        Mark 6vs1-13                        2Cor 12v2-10
Let us pray:

In this morning’s Gospel reading we see Jesus returning to his home town of Nazareth, probably during March of the year AD 29. This was about a year after the start of his itinerant ministry around the Galilee region, and following a visit up in Jerusalem for the Passover in AD 28.
Jesus returns to Nazareth to give the people there a second chance to accept his ministry. You will remember they had earlier rejected him, and tried to throw him over the edge of the cliff that their town was built upon. There in Nazareth Jesus had launched his Galilean ministry with those wonderful words from the prophet Isaiah, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor’(Lk4v18)

Now back again in Nazareth, those same people, his former neighbours, those who had seen him grow up, and knew whose son he was, and where Jesus was surrounded by his mother, brothers and sisters, they still could not recognise that this man was someone set apart. They had heard of the miracles Jesus had performed in the towns around Capernaum, and maybe some had even witnessed those miracles, but their eyes were closed to seeing that this was more than just a man, and they took offence at Jesus.

Jesus was not just disappointed, but ‘amazed’ by the ordinary peoples continuing lack of faith, and he reminded them that even from the former days of the great prophets, prophets were seldom held in regard by those neighbours who knew them, saying “A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country and among his own kin”.
Despite the people’s continuing lack of faith, Jesus did still manage to perform some ‘mighty works’ in Nazareth when he ‘laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them’. That should have spoken to the people and changed their attitude, but did it I wonder?

I do not know about you brothers and sisters, but I just long to see ‘mighty works’ happening today among our communities. As we look around us, I am sure that we must be moved as we seek to meet the growing needs many still possess today. They are not just needs for spiritual, emotional or physical healing, but as Jesus said when quoting the passage from Isaiah ‘release to the captives’ who we see under so many repressive regimes, and ‘to set at liberty those who are oppressed’. But does our government and other western countries speak out in the international arena for this?
Let us pray to see Jesus doing some ‘mighty works’ despite my, maybe even our, lack of faith.

So Jesus leaves his hometown and goes back on the road to carry on with the urgent work the Father had given him, that of proclaiming that people needed to repent as the Kingdom of God had come near. To carry this work forward it was now time for the disciples to also play their part.
Jesus imparted to the twelve disciples authority to cast out evil spirits, and instigated a practice that we still use today, that of anointing the sick with oil.

Our Lord’s brother, Saint James, tells us in his epistle (James 5v14), ‘Is any among you sick? Let them call for the elders, or leaders-ministers, of the church, and let them pray over them, anointing with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick.’ Let us see that happening.

The disciple that Jesus sent out had to proclaim the same message that the prophets had declared to the people many centuries before, the same message that John the Baptist had so powerfully delivered, and the same message of Jesus himself, ‘repent’.

We can see that age old call to repentance reflected throughout the Old Testament. In the time of king Hezekiah around 715 BC, after a great period of apostasy, Hezekiah called the people of Israel to return to following after the Lord, after their one true God, Yahweh. His call to repentance, for turning around their ways, was couched like this, ‘For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him’ (2 Chronicles 30v9).

How often do we hear that message proclaimed in the media, and by our leaders, today? Yet it is just as pertinent, if not more so for our generation to hear, but there is a fear that it would ‘give offence’ to some people, and so they will seek to stifle it. But Saint Paul does not mince his words over this. In Galatians (5v11) he calls the offence of the cross a ‘stumbling block’ and wishes that those who oppose it would ‘mutilate themselves’.

These seem hard words, but the message of the cross does cause offence, it is meant to, as that preaching is designed to give the Holy Spirit entrance into the soul, an entrance that will lead to repentance and eternal salvation.
If we look at the preaching of anointed and great evangelists like the Wesley’s, or more recently, Billy Graham, we see that in their message they were prepared to give offence, but the Holy Spirit endorsed their preaching by bringing many into God’s glorious kingdom. I would venture to suggest brothers and sisters, that we need to see that same message powerfully delivered to this and every nation once again.

As we pray at this Ember time for those who are being ordained into the Church’s ministry, we need also to pray that God will anoint them with the boldness to preach the unchanging biblical gospel without fear.

Not only did Jesus commission the twelve with his message of the kingdom, he also called them to live out that commission by faith. ‘Take nothing for your journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money’. And there are still those today who live out their ministry along those same lines, relying totally on God to meet their needs through the faithful and sacrificial giving of Christian brothers and sisters.

We often forget that the fellowship of the Church, the body of Christ, is set apart to be different, and by that difference, to declare our Holy God to this aching and needy world.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, send down upon your Church the riches of your Holy Spirit, and kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace; we ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.          Amen

Sermon St P’s & St M 27 June 2021 Year B         Fourth Sunday after Trinity
Jairus daughter and woman with issue of blood
Wisdom 1v13-15; 2v23-24                        (Ps 30)                        Mark 5vs21-43                        (2Cor 8v7-24)
Let us pray:

Last week we travelled with Jesus and the disciples, probably in February AD 29, in a boat across the sea of Galilee. You will remember that Jesus had to calm a storm with his commanding words ‘Peace. Be still’. This was a demonstration to the disciples, and in response to their question, ‘Who then is this’, confirmed the authority and power of Jesus as the expected Messiah, and Son of God.

When they reached the other side, to the pagan and Hellenistic, Decapolis, they were met by a demoniac. Jesus healed him, casting out the many evil spirits into a heard of swine who rushed headlong into the lake and were drowned. Despite wanting to return with Jesus to the Galilee, he was left as a missionary voice to those pagans, and so effective was his testimony that when Jesus returned some time later, all the people brough to Jesus their sick to be healed.

On their return back across the lake to the bay of parables, just south of Capernaum, where Jesus had taught before their journey started, he was given no rest or respite from his healing ministry. He was met by an excited crowd and by Jairus, one of the rules of their synagogue whose little daughter was dying. But as Jesus went with Jairus to heal the little girl, he was met and touched by a woman who had had an issue of blood for some twelve years.

The third century Church historian Eusebius (265-340) tells of a tradition that she was a woman of means who came from another pagan area around Caesarea Philippi, but she was clearly familiar with this Jewish miracle worker and of his power to heal.

In his book ‘A guide to the real Jesus’, Ron Mosley explains why this woman was so intent on touching the hem of Jesus garment.
She was in fact reaching for the tassels of twisted wool, called the tzitzit, which were on the corners or ‘wings’ of Jesus’ prayer shawl.
These shawls are still worn today to fulfil the biblical commandment given by God to Moses (Num15v38-39) “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels-tzitzit on the corners of their garments to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and to do them”.                   (show prayer shawl and tassels)
The tzitzit consists of five double knots and eight threads, making thirteen elements in all.
Now if we remember that in Hebrew each letter of its alphabet has a numerical value, for tzitzit it is six hundred. Add these together with the thirteen elements and what do you get? 613, the number of commandments in the Jewish law, the Torah, given by God to Moses. Again we have to remember that nothing is of no significance in the Hebrew faith described in the Old Testament.

There is also a Jewish understanding that the pomegranate fruit contains 613 seeds, one seed for each of these commandments. However during one of our stays in Cyprus I decided to check that and counted 771 seeds. So much for that myth, unless of course we still have to discover another 150 or so new commandments!

But there is even yet more significance to our story.
At the time of Jesus there was a Jewish tradition that the tzitzit, those tassels or knotted fringes on the Messiahs garment possessed healing powers. Perhaps you remember a prophecy from Malachi (4v2) where we read that Messiah is said to be coming with what? “With healing in His wings”, in other words, on the tzitzit, as the corners of the garment are referred to as its ‘wings’.

That desperate woman, after twelve years of no success from the medics and having spent all that she had, may have known that tradition and the prophecy, so no wonder she was intent on pushing through the pressing crowds around Jesus to touch His tzitzit. We read that Jesus was aware that someone had touched him as ‘power went out of him’, and said ‘who touched me’. His disciples seeing so many people pressing in on him thought that was an impossible question, but when the woman realized she had been healed, she came forward and Jesus comfortingly commended her for her faith with the words ‘Daughter, go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

And that is what Jesus still wants for the suffering people of our world, for them to be freed from their suffering. And the solution brothers and sisters is in our hands, we are called to be as Jesus to our needy and hurting world today.
A late Byzantine tradition speaks of a stone cross that had earlier been placed about a mile south of Capernaum to commemorates the site of that healing.
Jesus was then able to continue with Jairus but on the way some came who said that the little girl had died. That was no hindrance to Jesus who was about to show his power as the Son of God over humanities worst enemy, over death.
Jesus said to the weeping and wailing crowd that had gathered words which must have seemed to them not to make any sense, ‘The child is not dead but sleeping’.

I wonder if when things seem so overwhelming and not to make any sense to us, we are able to hold fast and firm to our faith, to our belief in the one true and creator God to whom ‘all things are possible’. Can we be patient and see that He will have a way forward for us?

So taking only the girl’s parents and his inner circle of the three disciples Peter, James and John, Jesus goes into the rulers house. He takes the child by the hand and commands, ‘little girl, get up’. No wonder when she began to walk about they were ‘overcome with amazement’.

Well, wouldn’t we be if in that situation? Yet such is the God that you and I worship and serve; and believe it or not, some of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world still see God doing similar things today, and that raises deep and searching questions for us to ponder.

In our reading from the book of Wisdom, attributed to king Solomon but probably compiled around the first century BC, the writer clearly describes God’s original creative intent for the human race, ‘God did not make death, and does not delight in the death of the living’.
Although death is part of the expected way of life that we have inherited, as Christians we have the promise of a hope that goes beyond mortal life.

E Mote in a well known hymn writes, ‘My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; no merit of my own I claim, but wholly trust in Jesus name’.

The writer of Hebrews tells us (Heb11v1), that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’; and Paul tells the Roman Christians (Rom5v2), ‘our hope is of sharing the glory of God’, and further tells us to (Rom12v12) ‘Rejoice in that hope’.
With that promise before us we are able to look beyond the gate of death with the hope of sharing with our Lord and Saviour the coming glories of his kingdom in the new creation.         Amen

Sermon St Peter’s 3pm 20 June 2021 Year B         Third Sunday after Trinity
(Job 38v1-11)                        Ps107 vs23-32                        Mark 4vs35-end                        2Cor 6vs1-13
Let us pray:

I wonder how much you know about the Sea of Galilee, lake Tiberius or ‘the Kinneret’? Have you ever been blessed with a visit there? It is of course the region where our Lord spent most of his life and ministry, and according to St Matthew, that time was predominantly in what we now call the ‘evangelical triangle’, a triangle formed by three towns, Jesus adopted home town of Capernaum, and also by Bethsaida and Chorazin.

The Sea, is the lowest freshwater lake on earth at 200m below sea level. It is 13 mile long by 7 mile wide and only between 150 to 200 feet deep, yet it is the major source of fresh water for both Israel and the Palestinian territories. The Rabbis have said “God created 7 seas, yet he has chosen this one as His special delight”, but its character, as we have read in our Gospel just now, is subject to rapid change.

This lake is bounded by hills, especially on the east side opposite to Capernaum, where they rise to some 2000 feet and so it is a source of cool dry air. The lake and the western shore however, are a source of warm moist air. It is these differences in temperature and resulting pressure, that can give rise to sudden storms where the air masses collide, mixed with cool winds arising from the summit of mount Hermon to the north, and from the Golan heights.
As most of the disciples were either fisherman on the lake, or residents from around the lake, they would have been very familiar with its sudden changes of mood.

Along the western shore line, between Tiberias and Capernaum, there are a number of semi-circular bays, with sloping embankments, forming natural amphitheatres, a good place for the crowds to gather to hear Jesus’ parables. His physics is better than mine, and so he used the natural reflection of his voice off the water to amplify his words as he taught the crowds from a boat. This area is often called today ‘the bay of parables’.

When Joy and I went up to Galilee one weekend when I was teaching in Jerusalem, we visited the Yigal Alon Museum in Kibbutz Ginosar, just north of Tiberius. It houses a fishing boat dating from the first century and now called the Jesus boat. Discovered in 1986 on the north east shore of the lake during a particularly dry spell, when the waters at the edge of the lake had receded, its fragile structure has been stabilised and restored.
It measures some 26.5 feet long by 7.5 feet wide and could easily have held 15 men. It reminded me of the 27 foot motor whaler that we used to have at Kelly in my previous existence.
Some of you who have served in the Royal Navy may have, like me, tried to row such a boat. Bad enough in calm waters, yet alone amidst a storm!

So now I hope that will have given you some idea of the sort of boat the disciples would have used to go across to the other side of the lake. We associate the words ‘the other side’ as that part of the lake opposite to Capernaum, and called the ‘Decapolis, the ten Hellenised cities where the demoniac lived, but there is also another meaning to that phrase. A north-south line drawn from Bethsaida divided the region into two political divisions, the rule of Herod Antipas to the west, and that of his brother Herod Philip to the east. We can then see the reason for having tax collectors like Mathew based near the border.

But that small boat containing Jesus and the disciples would have been very vulnerable in a sudden storm, easily swamped with water. No wonder the disciples thought that they were going to perish, while Jesus was contentedly sleeping in the boat, exhausted after a long day’s preaching.

The disciples seemed to have failed to recognize just who it was that they had in the boat with them. His power, majesty, authority and might, that  had been constantly seen by them, still seemed to elude them.
But as they had seen the Lord previously do many miraculous signs, they now realized that they needed one right then and pleaded with Jesus “Teacher don’t you care if we drown”. Another miracle was needed for them at that very moment, and that miracle was to reveal just who it was that they had with them in the boat, and they responded, “Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him”.

Our psalm truly describes how the disciples must have been feeling, and an experience of many others when in peril on the sea, “their soul melted away in their peril”. I wonder if those words flashed through their minds as they cried out to the Lord in their trouble? But Jesus delivered them from their distress, rebuking the storm with the words “Peace! Be still”.
Similar words to what we read in the psalm, “He-speaking of God-made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed”. And that was just what the disciples observed as Jesus spoke to the waters. Would that not make the disciples think and understand?

Who indeed was it then that they had in the boat with them. The conclusion was obvious, it was none other than God himself in the person of his beloved Son.

Sometimes God has to break into our lives in dramatic ways to get our attention and speak to us, just as he did with those disciples in the boat.
But sometimes, if you are anything like me, we are slow to learn and hard of hearing, and we may not at first understand the message God has for us.

Do we realize who it is that walks with us along our pilgrim path in this life, and who it is that indwells us by His life giving Holy Spirit.
Maybe we need to stop and ask ourselves what the power of God could achieve in and through our lives if we let God’s Holy Spirit fully work out His purpose in us. Or is our God so small; are our prayer requests too limited and of no avail? Is our faith constrained by doctrinal margins, denominational restraints and maybe our limited previous experiences?

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians he made it quite clear that despite all the hardships he had endured for the sake of the gospel, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, sleepless nights and hunger, he could say that he was ‘always rejoicing’. And how could he make that seemingly impossible comment? It was he tells us because he had learned to ‘work together with him’, to work together with God. Paul had learned to work with God whatever came his way; may we also learn such a lesson as we recognize just who is in the boat, and travelling with us day by day.

Our prayer should be to seek God for a greater understanding not only of His ways and purpose for each one of us, but also of God’s Majesty, His Holiness and His Power, for that is the God who holds us by the hand, and who is able to calm any storm that may arise.

Francis Havergal, the American hymn writer, after visiting friends in England in 1874 and leading ten people to the Lord, felt too happy to sleep that night and penned the words of the lovely hymn “Take my life and let it be’.
Let us use the words of one verse as a prayer:
Let us pray:
Take my love, my God, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for thee.                  Amen

Sermon Christ Church Brent Tor 9.45am Sunday 6 June 2021 Year B Trinity 1
Gen 3v8-15                        Psalm 130            2 Cor 4v13-5v1            Mark 3v20-35
Holy Spirit, our teacher, as we dive into the scriptures this morning, would You awaken our hearts, expand our minds and continue to shape our identities today.

Have you noticed how the scriptures can be interpreted in many different ways depending on how we approach them? The short account, at the end of this morning’s gospel reading, is one such example.

Jesus had moved back ‘home’ after being with the crowds and his disciples teaching the crowds by the side of the lake somewhere along the shores of the sea of Galilee, and then he appointed his twelve apostles.
We can assume that home was somewhere in Capernaum which had become the base for his ministry, but just which home remains a mystery. Was it the house of Simon Peter, or maybe that of his disciple Matthew, the former tax collector, or somewhere else, we really do not know.

Where ever it was there was such a large crowd sitting around Jesus and listening to his teaching that they did not even have time out to eat. The crowd must all have been so captivated by his authoritative words, and especially in the way that he had of engaging with the scribes and Pharisees. They had once again come down to the Galilee from Jerusalem specifically to find fault with his teaching and practices.

No wonder Jesus mother and family were worried about him, he seemed to be so taken up with teaching about the Kingdom of God, and how it had now come so near to the people with his presence as the Messiah, that he was not even eating.
If only today our friends and neighbours would become so interested in hearing the ‘good news’ of God’s soon to be dawning new creation.

We then have Jesus family sending a message to him that they were outside and asking for him. Some see Jesus response ‘Who are my mother and brothers’, as being a disparaging and almost dismissive response, but could there have been something much more positive in what Jesus meant?
What do you think?
My feeling is that Jesus was not being dismissive at all but distinctively inclusive, ‘Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother’.
Was Jesus saying about those around him, and I believe also about you and me, that if we do the will of God, we become as intimate to him as his own family members? I think so. What an amazing privilege, and such a demonstration of the grace and love of God, that we should be included in the inner circle of Jesus family. That should spur us all on to follow our Lord, and to serve him in what ever way he calls us.

Somewhat later in Jesus ministry it was some Pharisees and Herodians (Mtt22v15-22) who Matthew tells us came to Jesus, and they tried to ‘entangle him in his talk’, and asked him about paying taxes to Caesar. Jesus was aware of their malice and, not having any money himself, asked them to show him a coin of the realm, a denarius. Then Jesus gave to them a very significant answer, an answer that is often missed in translation, but once more shows just how significant we are to God our Father.

The coin would have born the imprint of the emperor, so Jesus asks them ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this’, they of course replied Caesars, to which Jesus replied, as I believe he said, “Render to Caesar the likeness that is Caesar’s, and to God the likeness that is God’s”.
Have you grasped the significance in Jesus reply?
What is the likeness that is God’s? What do we read in Genesis (Gen1v26), ‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our own image”’.
Yes, the likeness that is God’s which we are to render to him is ourselves.
We were created in the image of God, for the service of God and for fellowship with God. We are truly indeed, part of God’s intimate family.

As Paul said in our reading from Corinthians (2Cor4v14), ‘the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us also with Jesus, and will bring you into his presence’.
I trust that hope is one we all look for, and will encourage us to live out our daily lives as Jesus disciples, giving light and hope to our needy world.
Let us pray: The shorter Collect for this first Sunday after Trinity
God of truth, help us to keep your law of love and to walk in ways of wisdom, that we may find true life in Jesus Christ your Son, our Saviour. Amen