Belly Buttons – Innie or Outie?

Whoops! I got mixed up.  It’s not about belly buttons. It’s a European Union Referendum.  Mind you the quality of the debate hasn't been that spectacular and arguably there has been plenty of navel gazing.  Innie or Outie?

I have found the posturing and shouting statistics at one another a pretty poor way to handle something as important as this.  Yah boo politics which we still see far too often in the House of Commons really does not work within the outside world of public engagement.

I am pleased that locally we had a debate that was a very different flavour with great respect for each other from both sides.  Try listening to it if you like Portland European Union Referendum Hustings

As a Christian I try to come at the question of whether we should be part of the European Union prayerfully and mindful of some general principles in the Bible.

For what it is worth I share those thoughts here.

Jesus seems to have been about breaking down barriers rather than setting them up.  In John’s gospel in Chapter 4 Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman.  The Jews and the Samaritans did not like each other.  In this case though Jesus crosses many cultural and religious boundaries as he talks with the woman. This was a theme that was picked up in the letter to the Church at Galatia where we read “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

God deals in community not just individuals.  We see this throughout the Bible.  God meets individuals and individuals express their faith in him.  Yet God also raises up a people for himself to be his representatives and to be a light to others.  In the New Testament of the Bible Jesus called disciples to himself.  One might have thought that the Son of God could have gone it alone, but he does not.  Instead he shares with others.  God relates to communities as well as individuals.  Similarly we need to place great value on communities.

God created a world.  We are told about that in the book of Genesis.  (Whether you think that literally is not the point.)  The principle is one world.  As such we need to find ways to be connected and to care for the world as a world.  We are called to care for the world whether rich or poor.  By distancing ourselves from others, as individuals and nations we may undermine that.  Maybe we need the challenge of many people wanting to come to this country to remind us of the way that we have helped to ruin so many others countries in so many ways that the people that live there do not want to do so any longer! The world is global is to state the obvious.

The Kingdom of God is a space for all to rest.  In Mark’s Gospel Jesus speaks about a mustard seed growing and becoming huge so that the birds can rest in the shade (Mark 4:30-32).  If the Kingdom of God makes room for people to rest and shelter then that is a good example for us to follow.  How hospitable are we?

Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbour.  It seems quite hard to me to love and neighbour and hold them at arm’s length – well Channel’s width in our case!  It is partly about a mind-set.  As Christians should we be looked for ways to hold out a hand of friendship wherever possible or to push people away?

For all these reasons and more I shall be voting to remain in the European Union.

I do not vote to remain in the European Union because it is perfect.  Cleary there are things that might be improved. It is easier though to work for change from the inside.  This is what Jesus did.  He came to Earth, born as a man so he could change things form the inside.  When Jesus did it he dealt with sin and death and brought change and victory in those areas.  Working from the inside!  It’s not a bad model.   Jesus could have stayed separate from us safe in heaven in case he was soiled by us or in case it was not in his best interests (arguably it wasn’t – he was crucified).  But that risk was worth taking because it is always easier to change something from the inside.

The Church needs to act responsibly and not align itself with scaremongering or spurious unsubstantiated claims – particularly the type that circulates around Facebook.  The linking of the European Union with various Bible texts about End Times and the Devil are usually not open to serious scrutiny.  Many of the links they make have been used routinely over the years with many other things that equally have proved not to be about the End Times or the Devil.

There is nothing wrong with understanding and valuing our own tradition, culture, country or religion.  However it is good to then build bridges with others rather than barriers.  To leave the European Union would mean burning a pretty big bridge, and one that will not be rebuilt. For those who think they will take back control.  You won’t.  It will be the politicians that have control.  Just as they do now.

My greatest worry is that people do not vote and whatever the result is it will remain contested in conversation, minds and politics with attempts at an early revisit of the question because there is no clear mind or decision.  That would be a mess.

When someone leaves a marriage and there is a subsequent divorce even the most amicable are long drawn out affairs, expensive, and usually painful.  There is no reason to think that leaving the EU will be simple.  It will be long, drawn out, divert resources to the work that will have to be done, create confusion and not create independence because the world is interlinked in so many ways already.

So I am an Innie.  Might I invite you to be an Innie also?  But whatever you think please do not be a navel gazer on Thursday.  Do vote.  May God guide and bless us.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen.

Luke 24

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb…

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?

“They found the stone rolled away”

What a shock or surprise!

You see the women had gone expecting death.  They were surprised by life.

I wonder if too often we expect death.

Death of a way of life.

Death of the church or maybe at least the ones we know.

Death of a faith.

It is possible to hang about the places of death.

To expect the things of death.

To speak the language of death.

To even be dead ourselves – oh yes there are a lot of dead men (and women) walking – and I don’t mean zombies.

No I mean those who have never discovered life.

The women went to the tomb, prepared for death, ready to deal with death, ready to mourn death.

And they were surprised by life.

That is the message for us today. That people can be surprised by life. Those who feel life is hopeless and a dead loss – Jesus can surprise with life.

Those who feel that the things they hold dearest are dying – Jesus can bring transformation and a new perspective – a perspective of life.

Those who picked up a cross at this site where we stand and thought they had destroyed what Christ and Christians stand for because they had taken or thrown it over the cliff– they can be surprised by life.

Those who feel that faith is hard or non-existent – they can find the life that Jesus brings.

Those who feel there is no hope for the church –can find the life that Jesus brings.

Those who think death - they can discover life.

Those who think the Christian faith outdated, old fashioned, all in the past, a dead religion with a dead leader can find He is Risen and that life is there.

Today we acknowledge that we are not people of the tomb, those who deal in death, but rather those who proclaim the risen Lord, victor over sin and death and the one who brings life.  The Life Giver – who sends us into the world to be life givers also.

L: Alleluia, Christ is risen

R: He is risen indeed, Alleluia

A Summary of this was preached at the Easter Day Sunrise Service on the Isle and Royal Manor of Portland on 27^th March 2016.

Portland Methodist Circuit Covenant Service Sermon: Stay Disciplined! Stay Open! Stay Connected!

Chris Briggs and a rather feeble attempt
at pretending to be a boxer

Here are the notes from the sermon at the Portland Methodist Circuit Covenant Service held on 10^th January 2016 at Easton Methodist Church, Portland, Dorset.

The sermon is based on the following readings

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Jeremiah 31:31-34

John 15:1-10

Each section of the sermon relates to one of these three readings.

We started though with me making an appearance dressed as a boxer, entering with my “training” team to the sound of the Rocky Theme Music and introduced as “Chrissss Briggggggggsssss – Spiritual Lightweight of the World”.  You can listen on line at Portland Methodist Circuit Sermon Library under the date 20160110, but here is much of the text.

Stay Disciplined  1 Corinthians 9:24-27

So Chris Briggs – spiritual lightweight of the World! Portland does of course have a Boxing Club.  Maybe I’ll nip along next week and ask whether they can fit me up with a match?  That’s ludicrous of course.  In addition to being a coward, I am also very averse to physical violence – especially if directed at me.  If I wanted to box then I would have to do more than put on a costume and jump around a bit.  The thought of Rocky Briggs probably doesn’t even begin to ring true.  If I want to be a Boxing Champion I had better learn to box, train on a regular basis, hone my strengths, find ways to deal with my weaknesses and aim high.

This is true of so many areas of life.  You can’t hope to get very far in anything unless one develops one’s abilities, skills, resilience…..  Could it be though that we do not easily learn this lesson in the Christian life, in our spiritual walk?

Do we pick up our discipleship here and drop it there?

Do we think that we can be close to God and draw on the resources of God; that we can grow in holiness; that we can be effective in the world as salt and light just when we feel like it?

If you wanted to grow and become better and have an impact you wouldn’t do that in other areas of life.

I swim on a regular basis.  If I have a gap though it becomes harder to start again, to go the distance, to break through the boredom barrier or pain barrier or whatever.

If you are a runner you can’t suddenly pick it up and do it.

I used to run regularly – longer distances.  Then I didn’t  - then I did – then I didn’t.  A couple of years ago I went to take part in the Dumble Bimble around Portland.  I thought “It’s not far. I’ll run rather than walk.  I ought to train first though.”  Well, I had been walking back and forth to Weymouth so my stamina wasn’t bad, but I realised I needed to train.  So I did.  The night before I went for a run.  I ran out of my door, down Wakeham, got to the bottom and then nearly killed myself trying to get back up.  In the end I walked the Dumble Bimble while my wife Nicola ran some of it!

Discipline is essential to growth and development in virtually every area of life, whether physical and practical or more theoretical.

Oh dear!  It gets worse!

Paul knows this (1 Corinthians 9:26-27) “I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.  No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave”.  He is not talking of beating oneself literally as some monks and others of old have done.  He is talking about training and discipline.  Paul knows that discipline is part of the Christian life – that discipleship is linked with discipline.  Discipline and disciple share the same root word. The concept is that we surrender ourselves to something or someone, similar to an athlete surrendering his will to a coach.  Our coach is Jesus.

As we renew our covenant with God so we cannot escape discipline – in the basics – in worship, in Bible, in prayer, in community, in putting faith into action.  Not when we feel like it, but when we don’t feel like it too.

Stay open  Jeremiah 31:31-34

The reading from Jeremiah shows us that God is to do something new.  God has given the Law to help us know the way to live, but it is difficult for us.  We break rules too easily.  Our tendency to sin means that rules are not enough to keep us close to God.

God reveals that he will bring a new Covenant promise for his people.  The promise is that God’s ways, will, heart, is to be buried in the heart and mind of the believer.  In other words he plants himself within.

”I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.”

Romans 12:2 says something similar, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

What is this talking about?  It is talking about relationship rather than rules; relationship rather than ritual; relationship rather than religion.

Note this is about individuals having their heart touched by God – remade from the inside you might say, but also a people.  I will be their God and they shall be my people.  Which is why doing this together today is so important.

As we are invited to renew our Covenant with God today – the important thing is that God says he wants to be in relationship with us – a relationship of love.  He invites us to respond by saying we want to be in a relationship of love with him.  It is out of this that all else flows, our works, our service.  But again the way we stay close is a way of discipline.  That might sound odd but it’s not.  We need to work at relationships not just rely on how we feel.  That is so with marriages.  I suggest one reason so many marriages break up is because once people don’t feel in love they tend to distance themselves, but love is not dependent on feelings – it is also an act of will.  We are not always lovable but that doesn’t stop God loving us.  God is always lovable but sometimes our feelings are not that loving.  So when we don’t feel close to God the answer is not to drift off and do our own thing but be disciplined in our devotion – making time for God and making sure we focus on him and seek to stay in his will.

How can we be open in our own individual lives?

How can we be open as God’s people here on Portland?

Which brings us to the other point.

Stay connected (to Jesus and each other)  John 15:1-10

We will share communion as part of this service.   In Methodist parlance we will share the juice of the grape (non-alcoholic) and remember the blood of Christ.  We won’t see the actual grapes that have been used for the red grape juice.  But if we did have them here then we know that once grapes are off the vine then they will eventually begin to go off.  “Remain in me, as I also remain in you.”  Not only that, but the grapes won’t happen in the first place if they are not connected to the vine.  “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

This is not rocket science – it is viticulture!!  It’s not complicated.  Be separate from the source of growth and nutrition and you shrivel and die.

So are we blossoming, growing, bearing fruit as Christians?  Or are we shrivelling?  Not a bad question to reflect on as we hear the Gospel reading from John and think about our relationship with Jesus.

Are we shrivelling? Have we shrivelled?

^“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”

Stay connected.

That means all those things that are basic again and which I mentioned a few moments ago when I said  “As we renew our covenant with God so we cannot escape discipline – in the basics – in worship, in Bible, in prayer, in community, in putting faith into action.”

And so we come full circle.

It is in the discipline of these things that we can encounter God and grow.

It is openness to these things that enable us to find that God wants to make his home within us, in a real relationship something so much deeper than religion or rules.

It is through these things, and in other ways that we stay connected and bear fruit.

And as we prepare to acknowledge God’s Covenant with us we are invited to respond to the challenge to

Stay Disciplined.

Stay Open.

Stay Connected.

The Methodist Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own but yours.

Put me to what you will,

rank me with whom you will;

put me to doing, put me to suffering;

let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,

exalted for you or brought low for you.

Let me be full, let me be empty,

let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things

to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

you are mine and I am yours.

So be it.

And the covenant made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

Are Pumpkins the only thing we grow at Halloween?

Some of us in communities around the country, and a number of us within the life of the Church, have been celebrating Harvest time over these past weeks.  Gathering in the harvest reminds us of the bountiful provision that many of us have, encourages us to give thanks for this and challenges us to remember those who do not have enough in such a way that we take action to help.

The gathering of a harvest is an end product following the sowing or planting of something, together with the nurture that is lavished on the seeds or plants which enables growth and fruitfulness.    At this time of year there are a lot of pumpkins around.  I am going to astound you with a bit of knowledge. Here we go!   To grow pumpkins you have to plant pumpkin seeds.  Yes I know that is astonishing, but honestly it is true.  I have it on good authority that if you plant apple seeds you will not get pumpkins.  I know that if you plant grains of wheat then it is wheat that you get not pumpkins.  Be aware of what you plant.

This lesson that we reap what we sow is found in the Bible.  In Galatians 6:7 it says just that - we will reap what we sow or harvest what we plant.  That’s a great lesson for agriculture and horticulture and the like, but the interesting thing is that the Galatians passage is not talking about agriculture and horticulture.  It is talking about things we sow into our lives which can produce good fruit or harvest or bad fruit or harvest.  You see if you plant pumpkin seeds in your life don’t be surprised if you grow pumpkins!

Maybe what works in the world of agriculture and horticulture also works in our personal lives and indeed society.  It would be possible to look at various societies and see the way that good or bad things come out of them because of the building blocks, or seeds, that lay at the basis of society.  There are societies that seem to be compassionate and others that seem to encourage territorial conflict and even ethnic cleansing.  It might be partly because of the kind of things that are planted and nurtured in the minds, lives, and actions of their citizens.  If, for instance, from an early age children are brought up to hate certain groups or types of people then we should not be surprised at violence against and between such groups.  If so we should be cautious of sowing the seeds that encourage the darker things of life, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

That I think is where the difficulty with Halloween lies.  It is not the dressing up.  It is not the games.  It is not even the pumpkins!!!!  But it is a seeming fascination with darker things when there could be games and dressing up and food (including pumpkins) which encouraged light rather than darkness.  Of course with shops having an eye to profit there is unlikely to be much discerning from them about what might affect society in a positive rather than negative way (after all look at the sales of cheap alcohol that cause problems up and down the country).

Is British society going to be irretrievably harmed by the “celebration” of Halloween?  Are children that dress up going to be traumatised?  Let’s face it that is unlikely.  However, taking the longer and wider view maybe we plant seeds into society that are not entirely good for it and which might produce fruit that is not good. 

I am pleased that in churches up and down the country there will be “Light Parties” which will seek to emphasise the positive and enable children and parents to enjoy something wholesome.  I am grateful to those in my own churches who are putting in work to ensure that we run a Light Party on 31^st October.  After all there are some really good positive things to celebrate.  These seeds are good seeds and as they are nurtured they can bring a really good harvest for society.  I hope parents might think of ways in which they can encourage the positive at this time of year. Halloween (or All Hallows Eve) coming just before All Saints Day (1^st November) and All Souls Day (2^nd November) lends itself to focusing on a deep appreciation of those who have gone before us.  That is of special significance within the life of the Church but then isn’t that something precious in many families and communities as well.  Parents, grandparents, the innovators and inventors of history, those who have built our communities might all prove to be a good positive focus for us rather than that which is dark, even if it disguises itself as a bit of harmless fun.

Let’s be careful what we sow at this time of year.  After all it might be more than just pumpkins that we grow!

Something Smells Around Here

Phone hacking, Libor rate fixing, PPI, FIFA, and now Diesel emissions with defeat devices which fool those carrying out environmental tests.  The latter seems to have embroiled Volkswagen in bad publicity and possible court action of an immense scale, but let us be honest (which is in contrast to aforementioned scandals) there will not be many of us that will be surprised if the emissions scandal spreads to something more industry wide!

What is it about big companies or industries that seem to encourage, on occasions, a corrupt, dishonest approach which can spread like a cancer throughout their structures?  Is it the pressure to compete and win through profits? Is it that large structures are much more difficult to police and regulate?  Is it that we live in a world which in many ways has lost its moral, ethical and spiritual compass?  Maybe it is all of those or maybe none.  However, I tend to think that in an age of relativism (particularly in the West) there can be a tendency to define my behaviour as good because I can spot someone who is worse than me.  Is there an element of "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Acton 1834–1902) about things.

I do feel that in so many ways now the West (and our own country included) struggles because it takes its course and direction from what it sees around it.  To chart one’s course by objects that move can be a very dangerous business.  Yet I feel this is what we do.  In fact one of the frightening things is that one cannot help but get the impressions that some individuals, organisations and indeed companies base their behaviour on whether they can get away with what the other lot did in their pursuit of survival, profit and dominance.

In contrast the Bible and the Christian faith presents a standard that finds its bearings centred on the God who is both loving and holy.  To seek to base our lives and behaviour on him is very different indeed to casting a glance at the next person just making sure we are a little better than them.

We should always be concerned about the sort of scandals mentioned above, but in relation to the emissions scandal, at this Harvest Thanksgiving time within the life of the Church, we should remember we are called to care for God’s earth.  We should then be willing to challenge those who put profit before people and who think that dishonesty is OK as long as you are not found out.

Amos was an Old Testament prophet in the Bible who stood against injustice in society and who saw around him corruption, greed and dishonesty.  It was contrary to the way that that God had laid down for people to live their lives and for society to function.  Amos 8 says,

⁴ Hear this, you who trample the needy
    and do away with the poor of the land,

⁵ saying, ‘When will the New Moon be over
    that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
    that we may market wheat?’–
skimping on the measure,
    boosting the price
    and cheating with dishonest scales,
⁶ buying the poor with silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

⁷ The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: ‘I will never forget anything they have done.

Being big, being powerful, being rich, is not an excuse to cheat people or society.  The scandal over Diesel emissions is clearly not the first international scandal, nor will it be the last, but within the Church we have a particular responsibility to make a stand against dishonest behaviour and trickery of others and I suggest within society we need to do the same.

"No Entry" Sign for Refugees needs Taking Down

I am saddened by the way that Britain is responding (or not responding) to the current refugee crisis.  I am also saddened by the approach of too many members of the Press and too many of those in Government.  For months there have been voices seeking to persuade us that those trying to enter Europe are migrants.  Words and phrases such as swarm or invasion have been bandied around and members of the public have been encouraged to regard people escaping dire circumstances as people on the make.

What part of our mind thinks that people risking overcrowded boasts that capsize with the bodies of young and old washed up on beaches, or airtight lorries crammed full of human beings is likely to be a ploy to exploit our Benefits system?  It almost defies belief that people try to advance this kind of argument.  Of course there are people that are poor and have a tough time in Britain, but as a society we are so well off and so safe compared to some of the countries where these refugees are coming from.

Enough is enough. David Cameron and others in Government are wrong to keep putting the barriers up.  Yes there are policies and principles to consider in the longer term, but right now it is a time for compassion and action.  What we are seeing unfolding before us is absolutely heartbreaking.  We have a responsibility in this world to care for the weak and oppressed; to stand up for the children; to protect the vulnerable.  Take down that big "No Entry" sign that has been put up for domestic convenience.  We are seen as a safe haven and an opportunity for a better life away from fear and persecution. Prime Minister you should be taking the lead in demonstrating compassion and a desire for justice.  In many ways we are reaping the harvest of problems we have caused in these countries and now we want to wash our hands of the problem.  What hypocrisy!  Step up to the mark.  Lead us in a different direction.  The language has to change from migrants to refugees and there needs to be brave action.

As a Christian I am deeply challenged because I see Jesus as a refugee.  When his family fled to Egypt in the face of a vicious slaughter of youngsters from King Herod's men to ensure there was no threat to his throne Jesus was most fortunate that he did not encounter the UK Border Agency during his escape.  The likelihood is that if he had he would have been turned back.

I follow Jesus the Refugee and in the worried, agony etched, tormented face of the refugees we see in the media (or maybe in real life) I see the face of Jesus and his family.  So I say that just as there was a country that welcomed Jesus as a refugee fleeing from horror, so we should welcome those who flee for their lives in fear of what is behind and in hope for what might be ahead.   But I also say that whether or not you are a Christian or a person of any faith, the right response as fellow human beings to those people desperate to save themselves and their children is a response of generous, welcoming hospitality.

Take down the "No Entry" sign!

We all have our demons

These notes form part of a sermon preached at the United Church Dorchester, Dorset, on the evening of 21^st June 2015 based on the passage Luke 8:26-39, where Jesus heals a man possessed by many evil spirits.

We all have our demons – or so it is said.

Indeed some people go looking for them – Charlie Charlie is popular at present and is a variation on the Ouija board where supposedly a Mexican spirit is summoned and talked with using two pencils which point to yes or no.

Of course demons in the Western World are not so fashionable now – or at least not in the Church.  We should be careful lest we lag behind a world that recognises that if there are spiritual or supernatural forces behind the world then it should be no surprise that they act as if they were, well, forces!  So while I am sure there are all sorts of occasions when people in extreme states are such because of perhaps mental illness, emotional damage or another health problem we should not be too quick to dismiss a spiritual underlying cause for some conditions, whether that is an inability to forgive which finds its outworking in a physical condition, a resistance to God’s will which results in headaches or stress; or oppression by dark spiritual forces which results in messed up lives.

Why would I believe such stuff of demons and Devil?

First because before I became a Christian at around the age of 16 I used to dabble in these kinds of things and from my experience I would say that they can be real, unhealthy, and dangerous.  Second because I have seen people struggle with what seem to be dark spiritual forces and been called in to minister in homes and lives where things are happening that cause great concern and are outside normal human explanation.  Third because the Bible talks of these things.  I do not believe that the 1^st Century mind simply didn’t understand the clever things we do now and blamed everything on the Devil. Sure there is a danger of blaming everything on the Devil – and a danger of blaming nothing on him!

So I do not have any difficulty personally in seeing this passage as I find it.  In some way the man has been possessed (I think a rare but possible condition) and it has driven him crazy.  Nakedness and broken chains are indications of this.  Mark’s version (Chapter 5) tells us he screamed and cut himself.  He is hanging about the place of the dead.  We might reflect on whether we hang about the places of death and whether we get used to the idea that death frames the context for who we are and what we are about.

This man has his demons.

What holds you?

Is there something that seems to be your demon (whether or not literally)?

And in terms of this passage where is the true authority and power?  It is of course in and through Jesus.

Let me develop the way that Jesus demonstrates that authority and power through the Word of and about Jesus.

The Promise of the Word

Before our passage are these verses.

²² One day Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ So they got into a boat and set out. ²³ As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

²⁴ The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. ²⁵ ‘Where is your faith?’ he asked his disciples.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, ‘Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.’

²⁶ They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes,

Jesus said ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ 

On the way across there is a great squall such that the boat was swamped and they were in great danger.  Disciples feared they were going to drown.  And Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and waters which subside and there is calm.

The disciples feared for their lives – understandably.  But they had missed something.  They had missed the Promise of Jesus.  He said “Let us go over to the other side of the Lake”.  If that’ is where Jesus says they are going then that is where they are going and, come hell or high water (and possibly both are involved), they are still going over.

The promise of God in our lives is something to hold onto.

Where do we find the general promises of God?  In Scripture.  Through the Bible we know that God loves us (John 3:16); that he wants to guide us (Proverbs 3:6); that he will be with us (Matthew 28); and so much more.

Then sometimes we sense a particular and specific promise from God towards us.  There have been times for instance when Christians have prophesied God’s promises over me.  I wonder if we have sometimes sensed or heard the specific promises of God in our lives.  Maybe whispered in our ear; maybe through another believer; maybe as a result of a set of circumstances.

We need to hold on to those promises, both the general and specific.  There is a Salvation Army hymn called “Standing on the promises of Christ my King”.  One verse reads,

Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.

The Power of the Word

²⁹ For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man.

When Jesus meets this situation he deals with it not by brute force (nothing had managed to hold the man even chains – he had burst them).  Instead he deals with it by the word.

The word of Jesus is such that the demons within the man “Legion” recognise who Jesus is – “Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” and they have to obey.  Even before the crucifixion, even before the resurrection, even before the ascension, the forces of darkness recognise the name of Jesus, and they bow!

I do not know if darkness threatens to overwhelm you.

I do not know whether there is something within your life that is burdensome and which makes you fearful.

I do not know whether there is something within the deepest places of your mind and heart that makes life feel hellish every day.

But this I do know, that whatever that thing is its knee must bow before Jesus.

Whatever Goliath faces us and strikes fear into us is as nothing against God’s David of Jesus.

What is the word of Jesus tonight for us?

Where is that powerful word – maybe from the Bible or maybe whispered in our ear?  The power of the divine word means that whatever it is that holds us is cast aside by the word of Jesus?

If there be such a thing seeking to bind or oppress us speak the powerful name of Jesus into that situation.  Whether it be a person that oppresses or bullies us; whether it be a financial situation that seems to be spiraling out of control; whether it be a family situation that we do not seem to be able to resolve; whether infirmity has us in its grip and the pain is great and the hope has gone, invite Jesus to be the power that can break the chains that hold us.

The power of the Word of Christ and the prayer offered in the name of Christ is such a powerful way of standing against these things that threaten to overwhelm us. “The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission.”  Jesus is the one who gives permission.  What power there is in Jesus.  As the chorus says “There is power in the name of Jesus!”

The Proclamation of the Word

³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹ ‘Return home and tell how much God has done for you.’ So the man went away and told all over the town how much Jesus had done for him.

There is a proclamation of what Jesus has done.  This is good news.  Jesus is Good News.  Like the man who had found new healed life in Jesus and who told people about what Jesus had done for him so we are to proclaim what Jesus has done for us.

The Works of God are powerful and it is a privilege to share them with others.  Perhaps God is asking you to do that in the particular and specific way, maybe through the ministry of preaching.  If so please talk to someone and prayerfully explore that.  However, even if we do not have that specific call to a preaching ministry we still have an obligation to share good news of Jesus.

I read this quotation recently,

“Every Christian occupies some kind of pulpit and preaches some kind of sermon every day.”

Where is our pulpit and what is our sermon?