JP’s story surely people shouldn't ask permission to come to church?
The mantle is passed, the disciples have to become the disciplers, and those with whom Jesus has been with, now go with Jesus into the world.
Jesus’ authority is a major theme in the gospel of Matthew, shown as a teacher with authority, authority in his actions when he performs miracles, authority to forgive sins, his authority over the teachers of the law, his authority is seen most clearly in the rising from the dead, he is the son of man, the king of the Jews, the messiah, the son of God, the glorious risen one! He now gives his authority to his followers, they are empowered with his authority in heaven and on earth, heavenly authority, given by God, and now he gives it to his followers, and they will need every bit of it if they are to fulfil the vision of Christ’s message being spread to all the world.
Can you imagine if you were there? Can you imagine how you would feel, looking at the other 10 blokes there, knowing what they were like, knowing what you were like? I think I can almost hear their knees knocking even now! But the key was that they trusted in Jesus, no matter what they had been through ultimately they trusted jesus.
The gospel begins with the promise that the baby to be born would be Immanuel “God is with us” and it closes with the assurance that Jesus would be with them still and until the end of time, where they would be reunited, he assures them that when they gather in his midst he is there, without the presence and empowering of Jesus, they could never contemplate their world mission, When the Lord commands, he enables and his enabling is his presence.
Late one dark night a man was walking home alone when he hears a....."BUMP...BUMP...BUMP", behind him. Walking faster he looks back and makes out the image of an upright coffin banging its way down the middle of the street towards him...BUMP...BUMP...BUMP...Terrified, the man begins to run towards his home, the coffin bouncing quickly behind him...faster...faster...BUMP...BUMP...BUMP...He runs up to his door, fumbles with his keys, unlocks the door, rushed in, slams and lockes the door behind him. However, the coffin crashes through his door, with the lid of the coffin clapping...clappity-BUMP...clappity-BUMP...clappity-BUMP...clappity-BUMP...on the heels of the terrified man...Rushing upstairs to the bathroom, the man laocks himself in. His heart is pounding; his head is reeling; his breath is coming in sobbing gasps...With a loud CRASH the coffin starts breaking down the door; bumping and clapping towards him. The man screams and reached for something heavy, anything...his hand comes to rest on a large bottle of tixylix. Desperate, he throws the TIXYLIX as hard as he can at the apparition.....and THE COFFIN STOPPED!!!
How often do we look for the quick fix? How often do we think, ah God has called us to this, but you know really, other people can do this one, they can share, Alpha, outreach committee, etc I am not good! Bad news, it is a command, Jesus is telling us all to go and make disciples of all nations! Nations is really groups of people, so people wherever they are. Jesus calls out to us, we have his authority, we have his power!
Great commission is the response to meeting with the risen Christ (Need to personally meet him, passion to tell others, could our evangelism be at a low ebb because as a church we have never had a personal encounter with Jesus?)
The great commission springs from worship Jesus would be in the pub? We need to be lost in wonder love and praise, to be inspired to go on mission, we meet with Jesus in this place, so we go back into the bad old world ready to face it!
The great commission is the counterpart of the great commandment to love God and neighbour with love otherwise our efforts repel, love, love, love even when you get nothing back, this is what the Church should be, a blessing machine, bless believers, agnostics, atheists, Hindus, Muslims, love, with no agenda this is how we make disciples, but never push, never pressurize!
The great commission is a matter of sheer obedience we do it because Jesus has told us to! A nun who worked for a local home health care agency was out making her rounds when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it there was a station just down the street. She walked to the station to borrow a can with enough gas to start the car and drive to the station for a fill up.
The attendant regretfully told her that the only can he owned had just been loaned out, but if she would care to wait he was sure it would be back shortly.
Since the nun was on the way to see a patient she decided not to wait and walked back to her car. After looking through her car for something to carry to the station to fill with gas, she spotted a bedpan she was taking to the patient. Always resourceful, she carried it to the station, filled it with gasoline, and carried it back to her car.
As she was pouring the gas into the tank of her car two men walked by. One of them turned to the other and said: "Now that's what I call faith!"
The great commission is not to get a quick decision, a wee nod to Jesus, but to make disciples
The great commission is always directed outwards, the Christian church must never degenerate into a comfortable club for the like minded, it is called to disciple (house groups) and to teach evangelism, (give examples) not maintenance but mission. The developing world could teach us so much if we would listen, they are passionate about seeing others meet and grow with Christ, and as they go out in China, Russia, South Korea, Peru the new believers flood in.
We are called to follow Jesus’ lead to go and make disciples and he does three things before he leaves 1) He assures them of his power Their master was king of it all 2)He gave them a commission to make disciples3) He promised them his presence must have been a staggering task for 11 Galileans, to change the world, even as they heard it their hearts must have failed them, but no sooner was the task given, but the promised Holy Spirit was given, they were sent out as we are on the greatest task of all of history, but like the disciples we have the power and the presence of Jesus with us, we are never alone, and so we will never fail, step out in faith and make disciples, you know who I mean, you know the one I am talking about, you can picture them right now, you are the only one who can reach them with the hope and the purpose of God, share the love of God with them today, if you don’t perhaps no one will and can you live with that? Can you live with that for eternity?
So as you think about carrying out the great commission and about sharing your faith in Jesus with others there are a number of things for us to chew over. How am I to do it? - with words, prayer and presence With whom shall I share this task? Who is my partner? The question is: What kind of people are we?" as we look at Jesus it is clear he expects and calls us to be gospel people. Called to share the gospel so as we do so, others may come to be his followers as well.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
sermon this week!
Sermon this week
Perhaps you have heard the story of the old farmer who, with his wife, wascelebrating fifty years of married life. Life on a farm can be tough;commitment is required. And you have to be frugal.Their children gave them a party during which lots of friendscongratulated the honoured couple. They looked at old pictures, brought outold phonograph records. The fifty-year couple even danced a bit to theold, familiar music. When the party was over and all had gone home thehappy couple found them selves alone. It was a tender moment. The oldfarmer, who was careful with his money and even more frugal with hiswords, felt moved to speak."You know, Ma, over these fifty years, sometimes I've loved you so muchthat I really had to stop myself from telling you" She reached for a hankie,dabbed her eyes and said: "Thank ya', Pa."Why are we so reluctant to let others know how we feel? Why are we sostingy and so slow to speak words that others long to hear, so private insaying things that cry out to be said?
Who are we say thank you to today? You may be here saying I have nothing to give thanks for, there is no reason to give thanks, you don’t know what I have gone through. You maybe there saying I am thankful, but I still feel lost, that there is so much on the horizon, things that are going to swamp me and those I love in the next few days and weeks that I cannot enjoy what I have, how can I enjoy what God has given me because of what the future may hold!
We all understand and appreciate the importance of gratitude. How it canradically change relationships. In fact, one of the first things we weretaught and that we teach our children is to express their gratitude. Someone gives them some candy and we say: "Now what do you say?" And the childlearns from an early age the answer "Thank you." And certainly we all knowas adults that we appreciate being thanked. Yet, when it comes to givingthanks to our heavenly father, we so often miss the mark.And when it comes to giving our thanks to God, I don't suppose there isany story in the Bible that is so endearing to us, so timelesslyappropriate, as the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. We have allheard the story many times, but like so many Bible stories, we never tireof it.The story begins: "And as he entered a certain village there met him tenlepers, and they stood at a far distance." Don't ever think for a momentthat death is the worst thing that can happen to a person. It's not. Andthe scene this morning is a case in point. These ten men walked the earth.They breathed and ate. They had hopes and fears and aspirations andfeelings just like you and me. Yet, there was a tragic sense in which theywere already dead. They were walking dead. Leprosy was the most dreaded ofall ancient diseases. It ate away at the body and left its victim maimedand disfigured. There was no known cure. In their hopes for a family life,a useful occupation, plans for the future-they were dead men.Their situation was made worse because leprosy was believed to be highlycontagious. Actually, we know today that it is not. But tell that toancient superstition. The scripture made it quite clear that as theselepers approached Jesus they stood at a far distance. Jewish law clearlyprescribed that a leper could not get within fifty yards of a cleanperson. Everywhere these poor men journeyed they heard familiar wordsyelled out: "Unclean," "Leper." And then some would hurl stones at them tokeep them away. Leprosy was a serious public health concern but it wastinged with the religious element of ritual uncleanness. So it was thatthey not only had to live with their physical handicap, but they were alsoisolated. They had to live in the hell of loneliness. That can do more todrain a person's energy for living than the most horrible of diseases.But even in the midst of this horrible situation these lepers hadsomething to be thankful for. In their common misery they had bandedtogether. They had found each other. It is interesting to note that one ofthese ten lepers was a Samaritan. Now a good Jew in that day in time wouldhave no dealings at all with a Samaritan. They looked upon Samaritans asdogs, half-breeds. Yet, in the common misery of their leprosy these menhad forgotten that they were Jew and Samaritan and realized only that theywere men in need. Some of you might say, well it was a case of miseryloves company. Maybe so. But I know that there is power in fellowship,especially the fellowship of people who have a common need. Even lepersfound it so. Which, I think, brings us to the point of the story, which issimply this: even in the midst of our problems....1. There is always something to be thankful for.2. Thanksgiving needs to be expressed.
I want to assure you this morning wherever you are, whatever you are feeling, God will bring blossoms in the desert, this fantastic passage in Isaiah, speaking after the challenge of chapter 34, where God will judge the nations, esp Edom the near neighbours of Israel, who were the persecutors of God’s chosen people, the prophet says that even in the hardest wilderness, there will be life. In the midst of the desert the rose will bloom.
We live in the now but not yet, Isaiah was looking to Jesus we look back at Jesus as well as looking forward, God has moved, is moving and will move once more, and we live in knowledge of Jesus and that gives us opportunities that even Isaiah the prophet never had, to share the love of the long awaited messiah with others who don’t yet know him!
God is saying to people of Israel that things are tough at the moment, but there will be a time when he will move and they will receive the blessings of his action, that the wilderness will no longer be a place of fear, but of beauty and joy, Isaiah mentions Lebanon, Carmel, Sharon all places of beauty, that there will be transformation for the people. I believe that God still works this way today, that even when we are in the lowest place, where our souls thirst, where are body is in pain, where we suffer great hurt, God can transform us, from wasteland into wholeness, I love the idea that when God moves in us we will burst into bloom and rejoice and shout for joy, God wants this for us, but too often the world, our attitude our experiences weigh us down and we never see what God is desperate to give us, his love that is found in Jesus that gives us life in all it’s fullness. Even small things make a difference
In the book "A Window on the Mountain," Winston Pierce tells of his highschool class reunion. A group of the old classmates were reminiscingabout things and persons they were grateful for. One man mentioned thathe was particularly thankful for Mrs. Wendt, for she more than anyone hadintroduced him to Tennyson and the beauty of poetry. Acting on asuggestion, the man wrote a letter of appreciation to Mrs. Wendt andaddressed it to the high school. The note was forwarded and eventuallyfound the old teacher. About a month later the man received a response. It was written in a feeble longhand and read as follows: "My dear Willie,I can't tell you how much your letter meant to me. I am now in mynineties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, andlike the last leaf of fall lingering behind. You will be interested toknow that I taught school for forty years and yours is the first letter ofappreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning and itcheered me as nothing has for years. Willie, you have made my day."
As Christians do we make a difference? Who’s day can we make today?
In the time of Isaiah, the pilgrims wanted to go to Jerusalem to remember their God, but they were persecuted by the stronger nations, to be a pilgrim meant to experience great fear to have no real expectation, but to trudge on.
We are too often like the pilgrim with no hope, we think what is the world coming to, all we do never makes a difference even the work we do for God is not doing any good, but God promised those pilgrims of days gone by and we pilgrims today to be strong and have no fear, for he will come to rescue us, the streams will flow in the desert.
The pilgrims had to trudge through the desert with no path for their feet, we too feel that we trudge through God’s will on the journey he has called us to travel, but God promised the way in the desert a road to make travel easier. This is of course a call to travel upon the way that Christ has shown us, he is the way the truth and the life, he points us to the Father, he makes travel in this world safer and easier, in the sense that we know where we are going and who travels with us, the redeemed walk there.
God has redeemed us, this originally was the legal term for buying someone’s freedom from slavery, this is what God has done for us, when he sent Jesus, to die for us so that we may be restored in relationship with the Father, the way we were created to be, we are the ransomed people, God has delivered us from the slavery of sin, we are no longer the slaves to sin, we are the servants of God, we are the brothers and sisters of Jesus, we are the family of God, travelling this world together in the promise that God is with us, going before us and behind us to the holy city.
When the pilgrims saw the city they would break forth in joy singing with gladness that they had found the city. But you know, we are already in that city, when Christ died on that cross we arrived in that city, we are still journeying to meet with God one day in the world to come, but today we have access to that city the minute we turn and acknowledge God as our saviour through his grace.
At no point do we ever need to be alone, at no point should we fear, even when we hurt and suffer we are still comforted by the presence of God, God goes with us, we are in his presence today, he promises to never leave us or forsake us, when we don’t give thanks for what he has done, the wilderness takes hold once more, when we criticize, when we gossip when we fail to help others in need, the desert chokes the bloom, but when we let God’s Spirit grow in us when we let God’s love flow through us, then water will flow in the wilderness, the flowers burst into bloom, when we give thanks for what God has done and will continue to do in our lives if we let him, we bloom, our Church blossoms and God is honoured, that is where I want to be!
Now Thank We All Our GodYou can even be thankful during the most difficult of circumstances inlife. It's true! We see an especially inspiring example of a brave andthankful heart in the story behind one of the church's most popular hymns,"Now Thank We All Our God." This particularly hymn was written during theThirty Years War in Germany, in the early 1600s. Its author was MartinRinkart, a Lutheran pastor in the town of Eilenburg in Saxony.Now, Eilenburg was a walled city, so it became a haven for refugeesseeking safety from the fighting. But soon, the city became too crowdedand food was in short supply. Then, a famine hit and a terrible plague andEilenburg became a giant morgue.In one year alone, Pastor Rinkart conducted funerals for 4,500 people,including his own wife. The war dragged on; the suffering continued. Yetthrough it all, he never lost courage or faith and even during the darkestdays of Eilenburg's agony, he was able to write this hymn:Now thank we all our God,with hearts and hands and voices,Who wondrous things hath done,In whom the world rejoices...[So] keep us in His grace,and guide us when perplexed,and free us from all ills,in this world and the next.Even when he was waist deep in destruction, Pastor Rinkart was able tolift his sights to a higher plane. He kept his mind on God's love when theworld was filled with hate. He kept his mind on God's promises of heavenwhen the earth was a living hell. Can we not do the same - we whose livesare almost trouble-free, compared with the man who wrote that hymn?Whom can you say "thank you" to?
Perhaps you have heard the story of the old farmer who, with his wife, wascelebrating fifty years of married life. Life on a farm can be tough;commitment is required. And you have to be frugal.Their children gave them a party during which lots of friendscongratulated the honoured couple. They looked at old pictures, brought outold phonograph records. The fifty-year couple even danced a bit to theold, familiar music. When the party was over and all had gone home thehappy couple found them selves alone. It was a tender moment. The oldfarmer, who was careful with his money and even more frugal with hiswords, felt moved to speak."You know, Ma, over these fifty years, sometimes I've loved you so muchthat I really had to stop myself from telling you" She reached for a hankie,dabbed her eyes and said: "Thank ya', Pa."Why are we so reluctant to let others know how we feel? Why are we sostingy and so slow to speak words that others long to hear, so private insaying things that cry out to be said?
Who are we say thank you to today? You may be here saying I have nothing to give thanks for, there is no reason to give thanks, you don’t know what I have gone through. You maybe there saying I am thankful, but I still feel lost, that there is so much on the horizon, things that are going to swamp me and those I love in the next few days and weeks that I cannot enjoy what I have, how can I enjoy what God has given me because of what the future may hold!
We all understand and appreciate the importance of gratitude. How it canradically change relationships. In fact, one of the first things we weretaught and that we teach our children is to express their gratitude. Someone gives them some candy and we say: "Now what do you say?" And the childlearns from an early age the answer "Thank you." And certainly we all knowas adults that we appreciate being thanked. Yet, when it comes to givingthanks to our heavenly father, we so often miss the mark.And when it comes to giving our thanks to God, I don't suppose there isany story in the Bible that is so endearing to us, so timelesslyappropriate, as the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. We have allheard the story many times, but like so many Bible stories, we never tireof it.The story begins: "And as he entered a certain village there met him tenlepers, and they stood at a far distance." Don't ever think for a momentthat death is the worst thing that can happen to a person. It's not. Andthe scene this morning is a case in point. These ten men walked the earth.They breathed and ate. They had hopes and fears and aspirations andfeelings just like you and me. Yet, there was a tragic sense in which theywere already dead. They were walking dead. Leprosy was the most dreaded ofall ancient diseases. It ate away at the body and left its victim maimedand disfigured. There was no known cure. In their hopes for a family life,a useful occupation, plans for the future-they were dead men.Their situation was made worse because leprosy was believed to be highlycontagious. Actually, we know today that it is not. But tell that toancient superstition. The scripture made it quite clear that as theselepers approached Jesus they stood at a far distance. Jewish law clearlyprescribed that a leper could not get within fifty yards of a cleanperson. Everywhere these poor men journeyed they heard familiar wordsyelled out: "Unclean," "Leper." And then some would hurl stones at them tokeep them away. Leprosy was a serious public health concern but it wastinged with the religious element of ritual uncleanness. So it was thatthey not only had to live with their physical handicap, but they were alsoisolated. They had to live in the hell of loneliness. That can do more todrain a person's energy for living than the most horrible of diseases.But even in the midst of this horrible situation these lepers hadsomething to be thankful for. In their common misery they had bandedtogether. They had found each other. It is interesting to note that one ofthese ten lepers was a Samaritan. Now a good Jew in that day in time wouldhave no dealings at all with a Samaritan. They looked upon Samaritans asdogs, half-breeds. Yet, in the common misery of their leprosy these menhad forgotten that they were Jew and Samaritan and realized only that theywere men in need. Some of you might say, well it was a case of miseryloves company. Maybe so. But I know that there is power in fellowship,especially the fellowship of people who have a common need. Even lepersfound it so. Which, I think, brings us to the point of the story, which issimply this: even in the midst of our problems....1. There is always something to be thankful for.2. Thanksgiving needs to be expressed.
I want to assure you this morning wherever you are, whatever you are feeling, God will bring blossoms in the desert, this fantastic passage in Isaiah, speaking after the challenge of chapter 34, where God will judge the nations, esp Edom the near neighbours of Israel, who were the persecutors of God’s chosen people, the prophet says that even in the hardest wilderness, there will be life. In the midst of the desert the rose will bloom.
We live in the now but not yet, Isaiah was looking to Jesus we look back at Jesus as well as looking forward, God has moved, is moving and will move once more, and we live in knowledge of Jesus and that gives us opportunities that even Isaiah the prophet never had, to share the love of the long awaited messiah with others who don’t yet know him!
God is saying to people of Israel that things are tough at the moment, but there will be a time when he will move and they will receive the blessings of his action, that the wilderness will no longer be a place of fear, but of beauty and joy, Isaiah mentions Lebanon, Carmel, Sharon all places of beauty, that there will be transformation for the people. I believe that God still works this way today, that even when we are in the lowest place, where our souls thirst, where are body is in pain, where we suffer great hurt, God can transform us, from wasteland into wholeness, I love the idea that when God moves in us we will burst into bloom and rejoice and shout for joy, God wants this for us, but too often the world, our attitude our experiences weigh us down and we never see what God is desperate to give us, his love that is found in Jesus that gives us life in all it’s fullness. Even small things make a difference
In the book "A Window on the Mountain," Winston Pierce tells of his highschool class reunion. A group of the old classmates were reminiscingabout things and persons they were grateful for. One man mentioned thathe was particularly thankful for Mrs. Wendt, for she more than anyone hadintroduced him to Tennyson and the beauty of poetry. Acting on asuggestion, the man wrote a letter of appreciation to Mrs. Wendt andaddressed it to the high school. The note was forwarded and eventuallyfound the old teacher. About a month later the man received a response. It was written in a feeble longhand and read as follows: "My dear Willie,I can't tell you how much your letter meant to me. I am now in mynineties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, andlike the last leaf of fall lingering behind. You will be interested toknow that I taught school for forty years and yours is the first letter ofappreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning and itcheered me as nothing has for years. Willie, you have made my day."
As Christians do we make a difference? Who’s day can we make today?
In the time of Isaiah, the pilgrims wanted to go to Jerusalem to remember their God, but they were persecuted by the stronger nations, to be a pilgrim meant to experience great fear to have no real expectation, but to trudge on.
We are too often like the pilgrim with no hope, we think what is the world coming to, all we do never makes a difference even the work we do for God is not doing any good, but God promised those pilgrims of days gone by and we pilgrims today to be strong and have no fear, for he will come to rescue us, the streams will flow in the desert.
The pilgrims had to trudge through the desert with no path for their feet, we too feel that we trudge through God’s will on the journey he has called us to travel, but God promised the way in the desert a road to make travel easier. This is of course a call to travel upon the way that Christ has shown us, he is the way the truth and the life, he points us to the Father, he makes travel in this world safer and easier, in the sense that we know where we are going and who travels with us, the redeemed walk there.
God has redeemed us, this originally was the legal term for buying someone’s freedom from slavery, this is what God has done for us, when he sent Jesus, to die for us so that we may be restored in relationship with the Father, the way we were created to be, we are the ransomed people, God has delivered us from the slavery of sin, we are no longer the slaves to sin, we are the servants of God, we are the brothers and sisters of Jesus, we are the family of God, travelling this world together in the promise that God is with us, going before us and behind us to the holy city.
When the pilgrims saw the city they would break forth in joy singing with gladness that they had found the city. But you know, we are already in that city, when Christ died on that cross we arrived in that city, we are still journeying to meet with God one day in the world to come, but today we have access to that city the minute we turn and acknowledge God as our saviour through his grace.
At no point do we ever need to be alone, at no point should we fear, even when we hurt and suffer we are still comforted by the presence of God, God goes with us, we are in his presence today, he promises to never leave us or forsake us, when we don’t give thanks for what he has done, the wilderness takes hold once more, when we criticize, when we gossip when we fail to help others in need, the desert chokes the bloom, but when we let God’s Spirit grow in us when we let God’s love flow through us, then water will flow in the wilderness, the flowers burst into bloom, when we give thanks for what God has done and will continue to do in our lives if we let him, we bloom, our Church blossoms and God is honoured, that is where I want to be!
Now Thank We All Our GodYou can even be thankful during the most difficult of circumstances inlife. It's true! We see an especially inspiring example of a brave andthankful heart in the story behind one of the church's most popular hymns,"Now Thank We All Our God." This particularly hymn was written during theThirty Years War in Germany, in the early 1600s. Its author was MartinRinkart, a Lutheran pastor in the town of Eilenburg in Saxony.Now, Eilenburg was a walled city, so it became a haven for refugeesseeking safety from the fighting. But soon, the city became too crowdedand food was in short supply. Then, a famine hit and a terrible plague andEilenburg became a giant morgue.In one year alone, Pastor Rinkart conducted funerals for 4,500 people,including his own wife. The war dragged on; the suffering continued. Yetthrough it all, he never lost courage or faith and even during the darkestdays of Eilenburg's agony, he was able to write this hymn:Now thank we all our God,with hearts and hands and voices,Who wondrous things hath done,In whom the world rejoices...[So] keep us in His grace,and guide us when perplexed,and free us from all ills,in this world and the next.Even when he was waist deep in destruction, Pastor Rinkart was able tolift his sights to a higher plane. He kept his mind on God's love when theworld was filled with hate. He kept his mind on God's promises of heavenwhen the earth was a living hell. Can we not do the same - we whose livesare almost trouble-free, compared with the man who wrote that hymn?Whom can you say "thank you" to?
Thursday, October 11, 2007
sermon 7th oct
Luke 8 v 43-48
The “seet see” (Tzitzit) first appear in Numbers 15 God says to Moses, throughout the generations you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel, you will have these tassels to look at so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not chase after other religions
God tells the people to attach tassels so they will be visually reminded to live as he created them to live. The word for corners is “kanaf”, the word for tassel is “seet see”
To this day many Jews wear a prayer shawl to obey this text, the prayer shawl appears in interesting places in the bible, one of the most significant is in the prophet Malachi with the prediction of the messiah which says the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, the Hebrew word for wings is kanaf, the same word in numbers to refer to the edge of a garment, so a legend grew that when the messiah came there would be healing powers in the tassels of his prayer shawl.
Fast forward to the time of Jesus, a woman has a an illness for 12 years, no one can cure her, she grabs his cloak, Jesus is a torah observant Jewish rabbi, he would be wearing the prayer shawl, the woman grabs the cloak believing he is the messiah, that his tassels have healing powers, this is the one she feels that Malachi is talking about
If you were in the crowd, what would you think of this woman, this woman believes this man is the messiah, she touches the tassels and is healed just as the prophet said it would be, but the physical healing is not what Jesus is about in this story, it is what he says as they part ways that really counts, “Go in peace”
The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom”, it is very important in the bible, it is not completely accurate to say it is simply “peace” Many of us understand peace as the absence of conflict, we talk about peace in the home, or in the world of giving peace a chance, but the understanding of shalom in the time of Jesus is far more than the absence of conflict or strife
Shalom is the presence of the goodness of God, it is the presence of wholeness, completeness
So when Jesus says go in peace, he is placing the blessing of God on all of her, not just her physical body, he is blessing her with God’s presence in her entire being, and this is because for Jesus, salvation is holistic, for Jesus being saved is not simply a legal transaction, where he takes our sin and we take his goodness, for Jess being saved or reconciled to God involves far more than the saving of the body, or the soul, it involves all of you, God’s desire I for us to live in harmony with him, body, soul, spirit mind, emotions, every inch of us.
Too often we think it is a wiping away of sin and then we go on our merry way, fire insurance if you like, but Jesus actually gives us eternal life today, which fundamentally changes who we are, salvation is a way of life, and I think too often we see Jesus as a means to an end rather that a new way of living, that brings peace, that brings shalom. That is what I am looking for, that is what I have found.
To say salvation is for every part of our lives, means it is not all about the legal transaction where God has to deal with sin as he is holy, so Jesus gets what we deserve, and we get what he deserves, salvation is more, it is living today and everyday in harmony with God, it is a process that goes on forever. It is one thing to be forgiven, which I thank God for everyday, but it is another thing to become more and more and more and more the person God made you to be.
Jesus did not teach us that eternity kicks in when we die, because we have the golden ticket to heaven, Jesus said when we believe we have crossed from death to life, God always has been and always will be, when I enter into a relationship with Christ I am connected with God now and for ever. Salvation is now!
I need God now, I need healing now, I need help now, yes greater things will happen someday but Salvation is now, for all of you, not simply about getting somewhere better in the next life, giving life with God today, body mind soul, spirit, emotions all of us. The point is it is not about us, it is about God and what he has designed us to be
It is one thing to be saved, to believe in Jesus, but it is another to be healed by him body and soul, we can be saved and be miserable, it is possible for the cross to have done something for you, but not in them.
The cross is not a one off, we need healing from it everyday, which brings forgiveness, but the point of the cross is not simply forgiveness, but restoration, God isn’t interested in covering over our sins, he wants us to be the people we were originally created to be, it is not simply wiping the slate clean, it is God pulling us into the people he created us to be.
This is why Jesus’ message is to call us to be kind, generous and compassionate people, the goal isn’t simply not to sin, it is to increase the peace, the shalom of God in the world, God is calling to us all, with our sins, with our anger, with our hate, with our guilt, with our hurt with our pain, he is calling us all to receive from him as the woman who was cured when she touched his cloak
and to go in peace, and to live in peace, and to share the peace and to never be the same, because everyday we will choose to go in peace.
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