This coming Sunday (28th January) it's the turn of the Good Samaritan, an old favourite! But has familiarity smothered something? What does this parable say to you? To the Church? To the World?
Wednesday 24 January 2007
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37)
Monday 22 January 2007
'The Bloke Who Went Begging for Food from his Sleeping Neighbour' (Luke 11:5-8)
Today we come to what is called in some books the Parable of the Importunate Guest. Or the Parable of the Unwelcome Guest, or the Persistent Friend. A parable about prayer… I’ve called it ‘The Parable of the Bloke Who Went Begging for Food from his Sleeping Neighbour’!
Today’s parable is a familiar story
Imagine says Jesus that you are putting on a meal for a guest when suddenly you realise you’re missing a crucial ingredient! Panic! Local 24 hour Tescos is shut, garage store no help, where do you go, what can you do? Need the ingredient and need it now!
All been there haven’t we, not an unfamiliar story at all
So, what do you do, you call on your neighbours or your friends to beg some, and that is exactly what happens here.
But of course this is a parable. If you remember back to the introduction, you’ll recall that Jesus’ parables are a bit like riddles. They’re an earthly story, an everyday event, but with a twist. The challenge to us is to spot the twist and to work out what it means to us.
So where is the twist in this story? It sounds so familiar…
Here’s a twist, the guest isn’t expected. He’s a friend who’s out travelling and has called in on the off chance. Ever happened to you before. Can be quite inconvenient can’t it! If you’d known you’d have got the food in advance, hovered the floors, dusted the cobwebs away, and warned the children to be on their best behaviour. But no, no warning, out of the blue there’s that knocking on the door…
Now of course, you could try and get away with just offering a quick cuppa and chat, and hope they’ll go away before mealtime. As long as your tummy doesn’t rumble loudly prompting them to hint that they need some food you might just get away with it!
Not so easy. In the time that Jesus told this story, there were strict rules about hospitality, as indeed there still are in many parts of the world even today. If a guest came to your house like this, you were honour bound to offer hospitality, food and drink. Who knows, maybe this guest was relying on that fact, moving from friend to friend scrounging as he went. He may have been someone you were keen to while the hours away with, or might have been someone you’d rather avoid, but that is irrelevant, here they are, your guest, and if you don’t feed them you’ll run the risk of loosing face.
You can imagine the scene can’t you. Your guest arrives. You sit them down, make them comfortable. Talk for a while and then say that you’ve got to put the food on – ‘no it’s no effort, really.’ Out to the kitchen to desperately run around seeing what culinary delights you can throw together in 10 minutes. Reaching out for Delia Smith, you pick out a great idea, should do the job nicely. It’s only when you get half way through that you discover the crucial ingredient is missing. No bread. No bread, no meal. No meal, no hospitality. No hospitality and you’re suddenly as popular as Jade Goody… Stick the head around the door Basil Fawlty style, just one moment now, before skipping secretly out of the back door to slip off to the neighbours. Surely they’ll rescue you in your hour of need. As you go, you stop and look at your watch. Ah, it’s late… never mind, needs must, they’ll come good, they always do. And so it proves to be. They have bread and your guest is provided for.
And so we come to the twist in this parable, this is the lesson.
In prayer we are like the man in this parable looking after the unexpected guest, and God is like the neighbour he goes to visit. The lesson of this parable is that despite our faults, our unthoughtful nature, or our needs and inadequacies, God hears our prayers and supports us.
Or is it?
We try to be nice don’t we, to do the Christian thing, to care for those around us. There are some days aren’t there when it is a breeze, you know the days when life is under control, when you have time and energy to deal with whatever comes your way. Occasionally those days come when you feel like some super person. Run the world, care for the family, put the food on the table, oversee that crisis at work, and still have energy to deal with everyone else’s problems. Those are the days we try and survive!
And so it was on this day. You’d got through the day, dealt with work, got the children to bed, done whatever else you needed to do. Eventually bed comes and the pillow is a welcome place to rest your head and shut your eyes… And then there comes this knocking on the door, the First Century Neighbour from Hell…
In First Century Palestine, house layouts were a bit different than today. There wasn’t an upstairs in the average house (remember most were peasants). Instead they would al sleep on a platform together. For the neighbour to answer the call, they would have to clamber over a family of sleeping people, running the risk of waking them up – and what parent ever wants to run that risk! And if they don’t stir them then, they run a second chance of doing so when they light lamps and stumble after the bread that may be stored somewhere. Its no surprise is it that the neighbour is most reluctant. I tell you the truth, if that was me, and you came around, I’m sorry, there’s fat chance that I would get up, risk waking the kids all for the sake of some bread! To be honest, there’s little chance if I were asleep that I would hear you at all!
(Illustration of phonecall from the police that Matt and I slept through!)
You knock on the door and call out. No response. Must be asleep. Oh well, they’ll forgive you. You knock again, a bit louder. And again. Eventually you call out – who cares, if you wake up the whole neighbourhood, someone will surely be able to help you. Be quiet, comes the grumpy response, don’t you realise what the time is! In for a mite, in for a denarii. You keep on going until eventually your neighbour gives in and comes down with the bread. Here, take it – this is not because you’re my friend, but in order to get rid of you so that you don’t wake the kids and I can get back to bed.
And all of a sudden, we realise that we’ve got this parable all wrong. This isn’t about God’s willingness to overlook our inadequacies (even in the kitchen). No, its about the need for persistence in prayer.
There are times when we pray and God answers us straight away. Then there are times when we have to keep on going, keep on knocking until he answers. Now this doesn’t say why this is the case, but we can speculate possible reasons for this. Perhaps God is looking for us to prove our faith. Perhaps it’s to do with earnestness in prayer or commitment to the cause we are praying about. Perhaps its because the timing isn’t right. Could be for a whole variety of reasons!
How does that sound to you? Do you see what I’m saying here? I have to confess that the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Just like the parable of the sower, I have heard many sermons on this passage, and that is what many of them have said. But something is wrong here.
Is God really a grumpy neighbour who only responds because we bludgeon him into submission?
Is prayer really about how much emotion we put into it?
Does God call us to prove our faith by holding back the things we need or seek?
Maybe the answer to this riddle is back in the laws of hospitality. We’ve already thought about how the host was obligated to serve his unexpected guest, and how that might send him out in the middle of the night, and out to his neighbour, even knowing the hour it was. And here is the crunch. The truth is, he wouldn’t be worried about his neighbours response. Remember the world was more community focussed that today. He could go to his neighbour and not be worried about waking him and his household, as his guest was the neighbourhood’s guest. It was just as much their responsibility as his to provide for him. The scandal of this passage is not the guest turning up unannounced. It is not even the host demanding bread from his sleeping neighbour. The scandal is that when he called on his neighbour, that the neighbour didn’t leap to help when his friend came a knocking…
All of a sudden we realise that it is not the host that is the original neighbour from hell, but the man who’s door he goes knocking on. Such a figure in First Century Palestine would be a social outcast, ostracised for his lack of social concern and his snobbery. This is the real twist in the parable, the scandal.
Is God really like this?
No. Let’s look either side of this passage.
Before the Lord’s prayer where we are told to pray for our needs, for our daily bread – an incidentally, three loaves would be considered a meals worth for one person.
And then after, Read Luke 11:9-13
God is presented here as nothing like this man.
Ask and you shall receive,
Seek and you will find
Knock and the door will be opened!
We don’t need to badger God, and he certainly doesn’t want to hold back from his children.
This turns the traditional understanding on its head. If a snivelling, begrudging figure such as the man in this story will help those who come calling for his help, so much more will our Father, Abba, in heaven with all its riches at his disposal, help those who seek his aid...
Sunday 21 January 2007
Our Own Parable
This Sunday during the service we drew up our own parable.
Tom (aged 7 and a bit) breaks the glass of his local Park-keeper’s greenhouse with his football. Quickly he roots around the growing seedlings to find it causing terrible damage. Finding it he runs home and hides…
Later Tom discovers that the Park keepers plants were for a competition and that he is devestated that he can't enter. Tom buys new seeds and takes them to the park keeper and owns up. Park keeper asks him to help plant them – it turns out he knew it was him all along! Next year they win the competition together.
Let those who have ears to hear, listen….
Friday 19 January 2007
Swapshop
In the spirit of Swapshop (for those that remember Noel Edmonds early days on TV) we are making an alteration to the sermon series and swapping around the next two sermons, and so The Persistent Friend (Luke 11:5-8) will be this week (21.01.07) and The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37), next week (28.01.07)
Monday 15 January 2007
The Two Debtors (Luke 7:41-43)
Here are the notes from Caroline's sermon
Introduction.
Challenge of parables. So often really familiar – trying to step out of that and see in a new way – good for us.
Particularly as I wrongly assumed which parable it was and had started thinking about another similar one before I read this!
Also hard – easy to get in comfy groove (or rut?) with our way of thinking. Jesus – iconoclastic – he broke peoples thoughts – he wasn’t what people were expecting – this was true for disciples as well as those who didn’t follow him. This is a challenge for us - think Sermon on Mt – not just outer attitudes – but inner heart. So many examples when we see disciples think they have “got it” only to find they haven’t quite! I have heard his ministry described as a ministry of “deliberate provocation” – challenging the status quo and entailing a new way of looking at things – new wineskins for new wine. (Luke 5:37-39)
A key question for parables – why did Jesus tell this parable when he did? What is its context – I suspect this is important for us - and helps us understand it.
Context
Where is he? – Invited for dinner with one Simon, a Pharisee. We don’t know Simon’s reason for this – whether he was sympathetic or not. As he is reclining to eat a woman described as having lived a sinful life, comes in and starts weeping and washing his feet with her tears and wipes them with her hair. She then anoints his feet with costly perfume.
This startles Simon and we gather from v 39 that in his mind he is asking questions. Perhaps he had asked Jesus round because he genuinely wanted to find out for himself who Jesus was. Is he a teacher? A prophet? I think he has a picture in his mind of what a prophet should be or would be like and allowing such a sinful woman to touch him does not fit that picture. Previously I thought Simon was coming from an anti Jesus standpoint, he was a Pharisee after all. Let’s pause in the story for a moment and think about the Pharisees. I think we tend to give them a bad press. There is apparently a lot we don’t know about them – they have a large influence on the society of the time. They lived an ascetic lifestyle – they were very self disciplined. They were very devout – they obeyed the law rigorously. They also had an additional body of traditions and interpretation and practises. They were very conservative. I guess we would probably call them the “religious right” of their day. Over the course of the gospels, they become a stereotype for the opponents of Jesus – they suggest they were trying to “vet” Jesus. Perhaps this was part of what Simon was trying to do by inviting him for a meal.
But I wonder – perhaps not. Perhaps he did genuinely think Jesus was a teacher, a prophet to take note of – but somehow he isn’t quite what he thought. The picture is shattered. Is Jesus something special? Does he realise that this woman is a sinner? I guess there were lots of questions in Simon’s mind.
It’s into this questioning, exploding mind that Jesus tells this parable. It’s a story of a moneylender with 2 people who owed him money – they owed different amounts of money 1 owed a lot 1 owed much less. But the key thing was that neither could pay. The moneylender’s response is to cancel the debt. Wooah! Not what you’d expect a moneylender to do - they are not known for their kindness are they? It’s the stuff of soap opera’s isn’t it – you’d expect them to “send the boys round”! But that’s not what happens in the story Jesus tells. Jesus asks a question – which of the 2 would love him the most? A bit of a strange question in a way – again you can hear cracking and breaking of illusions here I think. Simon thinks about it and answers – the one who has had the biggest debt cancelled. And Jesus says this is correct.
He doesn’t just leave it there though does he? He does give something more of an illustration. Notice he doesn’t explain the parable, he leaves that to stand, but he does illustrate it. He explains how the woman in her actions has made up for what was perhaps a lack of graciousness in Simon’s welcome of him. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting there was anything wrong in Simon’s welcome – just suggesting it was purely formal – what was required and no more. It makes me think of the phrase “the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law”. The woman has washed his feet – not with a bowl of water but with her tears. She has dried his feet – not with a towel, but with her hair. And she has anointed his feet with costly perfume. What is in her heart? A simple outpouring of love – and I think repentance – hence the tears.
Jesus goes further – saying her many sins have been forgiven (not denying she’s a sinner, but not judging her) and so she loves much. And the implication I think – or perhaps the challenge to Simon is that he by contrast loves little. For all his worthy self discipline which means perhaps he has sinned less – he loves less.
Jesus has to shatter his pre conceived ideas in order for him to find out the truth of who Jesus is. Poor Simon – because it seems that his ideas and pictures are being completely shattered. There is more – having implied that he is able to forgive sins., Jesus then in v 48 says directly to the woman “ Your sins are forgiven”. He makes the implication completely explicit.
We can’t really appreciate what a shattering statement this must have been. Jesus forgiving sins – no wonder v49 says “Who is this that even forgives sins?”
What about us?
What has this parable to say to us? There is of course the sense that however much we have sinned is in a way irrelevant – we are like both debtors in the story unable to pay and we need God to forgive us by his grace. There is really no sense of any of us being any better or worse than anyone else – so lets realise again in our acceptance of each other that sense – we are all sinners saved only by God’s grace.
Don’t be surprised if in your relationship with God that there are surprises – or you find what you thought was so gets challenged. God wants to bring us to a deeper relationship with him and to do so at times he has to shake us by shattering some of our ideas. He’ll do what he needs to get us out of a rut when we are in one!
For me the greatest challenge was “how much do I love?” – and I was reminded of Rev 2 and the words to the church in Ephesus. I would encourage each of us to prayerfully consider this. You see the church at Ephesus was very concerned about doing the “right thing” concerned to persevere – all good things – a bit like Simon and the Pharisees. BUT they had lost their first love. Remember they would say regularly that “Hear O Israel… love the Lord your God…” They had lost that sense of love that comes out of a deep sense of how much they have been forgiven. They are told to repent – and do the things they did at first – out of love. And told that if they did not repent, their church would not continue. Sometimes we get so caught up in the busyness and form of the way we do things that we lose the sense of our love relationship with God. As individuals and as a church – let’s allow room for grace – and act from love – not just be coldly concerned about doing the right thing.
The woman who acted out of love in anointing Jesus’ feet with perfume actually blessed them all. The aroma of the perfume would have spread and been something which they could all enjoy. As we allow room for God’s grace and as we love God and each other, there will be great blessing both to us and to those who we meet and who we want to show Jesus to. It will also please God. You see the distinctive mark of a Christian is their love – John 13: 34,35.
Wednesday 10 January 2007
Coming Up!
This Sunday's sermon will be based on The Two Debtors (Luke 7:41-43), a small parable told when a meal with Pharisees was gatecrashed!
"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Ahead of Sunday, what thoughts and feelings does this story provoke in you?
Tuesday 9 January 2007
How Do I See What Others Have Said?
You've looked through the posts and heard the sermons on Sundays. But what do others have to say? One of the great things about the church is that God can speak to and through anyone of us! To find out what others have said click on a post title. This reveals the whole post, not just the excerpt on the homepage. At the bottom of the page are listed the comments people have made to that post. Alternatively you can simply click the 'comments' link under the excerpt on the homepage. This opens a page where all the comments are listed with a form for you to add your own.
How do I Have My Say?
You've heard the story, survived the sermon and have your own thoughts. Fancy sharing them with us? So just how can you do that?
To join the discussion, find the post relevant to the topic you want to talk about. Click on the word comments underneath it. This will bring up a new window where you can write your observations, questions etc. On the right hand side of that page it will give you various options regarding what name will show up next to what you have written on the webpage. If you have a blogger account you have the option to use your normal blogger 'display name'. You have the option to appear as 'anonymous'. You can also click on 'other' which opens up a new section where you can write your own name and enter a website address if you have one you wish to share.
If you want to have a test run before you make a proper post, you can always do it to this post here! Go on, you n=know you want to...
Monday 8 January 2007
Introduction to the Parables
What is a Parable?
(Notes from the talks given on Sunday 7th January '07)
A parable is like a riddle, a story Jesus told about everyday things. He used parables because we all love stories, they engage us, involve us emotionally, and relate to our lives. The parables are special as being riddle like they provoke us to think - what is Jesus trying to tell us? what does this mean?
To solve these riddles, we need to understand the background of the day.
What does Jesus say About Parables?
Speaking to his disciples: "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'" Luke 8:10
What's this all about? Suggests that Jesus is trying to talk in such a way that to some people he may be understood, but at the same time others won't be able to understand - almost as if he's speaking in code.
Maybe that's because he doesn't want those who may be made angry by what he has to say to realise what he's saying? Remember as time went on he made many enemies - the Roman leaders began to wonder if he was a rebel come to kick them out and the religious leaders became jealous of his popularity.
I wonder though if this is really what it's about - surely Jesus wanted all people to have a chance to hear and respond to the good news about God's kingdom that he was bringing?
He is actually quoting Isaiah - these words were given to Isaiah at the beginning of his work as a prophet and meant that although what he had to say could be heard by all, some would hear and accept it, but others would hear and reject it. And so it was with Jesus and still is today, some hear his words and embrace him, others hear him and reject him.
The fun thing about the parables is that often no explanation is given. This leaves it possible for a parable to mean a range of things to different people. God can speak through them to us in different ways. It also means that once heard they can continue to niggle away at us and may raise more questions than answers!
The Sower & His Seeds
Here is a parable that Jesus once told as an example and introduction to our series: Luke 8:4-8
Most of the people listening would be able to relate to this. In Israel at the time only a handful of Jews would be wealthy, as would the Roman occupiers, but the vast majority of people would be poor peasant farmers· With the rich having taken the best land, these would be forced to farm on the margins. Most of those listening to Jesus would be just like the farmer in the story, scratching a living on soil which most of the time was not very good.
The picture of the land would have been an evocative one. The Land had been promised to them by God, it was a sign of their relationship with him. But at this time, the Land was occupied by the Romans, they had lost control of their inheritance from God.
With the giving of the Land came other promises. If they stayed close to God, then they would prosper, the land would yield a good harvest! However, if they strayed from him and his ways, then the land would become barren.
Many in the audience would have been struggling to survive and despairing that God had abandoned them. What would this parable have meant to them? The poor harvests in it would remind them of the need to repent, to turn back to God and his ways. At the same time, however, all was not lost. God hadn't abandoned them. There were still these good harvests. They could have hope of restoration by God. He was still with them.
What does this mean to us today? How does this riddle challenge or encourage you?
Sower Part Two
Luke 8:11-15
This parable is unusual as Jesus actually gives an interpretation of it to his disciples (although remember that most of the crowd that heard it would only have the story, a parable can mean different things to different people).
I have heard many sermons on this. They usually go something like this...
- God is the farmer sowing his seed
- The seed is the word - the good news about Jesus
- People are like the different soils
- Some hear and accept it and flourish
- Some seem to accept Jesus, but are then tempted away by other things and wither
- Others are like the rocky ground, they don't even accept Jesus at all
I have a problem with this. It gives no hope - either you will respond or not, it's fixed. You can't be changed from being rock to good soil. Also, that's not actually what Jesus says, he doesn't say that we are like the different soils, instead he says that we are like the seed.
That brings hope. Yes, there will be different responses to God. We know this from our experience of other people and ourselves, but the soil can be changed, the seed is viable if it can be found suitable nourishment.
When we find ourselves in barren times, maybe this story can encourage us?
Is it telling us to perhaps call upon God, to forgive us and nourish us?
Perhaps its a warning to take care of what we feed our souls with?
What does it say to you?
Above all, I think it is telling us not to give up hope. God is with us, his kingdom is near, draw near to him.
Thursday 4 January 2007
Parables?
"The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'" Luke 8:10
The parables are amongst some of the most well known passages in the Bible, enduring stories told and loved by many. Often they are seen as stories to teach in Sunday School, but to leave them as something for the children is to miss out.
Read them again with adult eyes and you will see that they are challenging, confusing, and often highly radical. They can also seem to be confusing, obscure or just downright strange! Why did Jesus tell these 'riddles'? Why not just explain the truth plainly? What was he trying to do?
God's Riddles - The Sermon Series
These are the parables we shall be looking at in this series and the relevant sermon dates. Hopefully we shall be able to post the sermons as preached on this site.
What are Parables? (Luke 8:4-15)- 07.01.07
The Two Debtors (Luke 7:41-43)- 14.01.07
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37)- 21.01.07
The Persistent Friend (Luke 11:5-8)- 28.01.07
The Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21)- 04.02.07
The Barren Fig-tree (Luke 13:6-9)- 11.02.07
The Lost Piece of Silver (Luke 15:8-10)- 18.02.07
The Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32)- 25.02.07
The Unrighteous Manager (Luke 16:1-9)- 04.03.07
The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)- 11.03.07
The Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-8)- 18.03.07
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14)- 25.03.07
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