Saturday, July 29, 2006
July 23, 2006--When I Woke Up This Morning....
Note: Posts are taken from loose outline notes of sermon. Actual delivered sermon may have varied. No recording available sorry.
Scripture: Matthew 5:48; 13:31-2
Let's talk about a real problem with the Christian life. It comes where people do not usually look for it. it comes at the very moment we wake up in the morning. At that first moment, when the cameras come on and the day starts, the hopes and wishes and dreams and fears and desires come rushing at us.
Our first job, then is to push them all back, instead of listening to them, and lsiten instead to that other voice, taking the other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, but quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. It becomes then, standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings, coming in out of the wind.
At first, we can only do it for moments at a time. But from these moments the new life will be spreading out into our system. In some ways it is an exercise of endurance, of building up the muscle of our faith. It is the difference between paint, which just covers the surface, and dye, which soaks rightg through. He never talked in vague idealism. Christ said, Go and be perfect. he meant it. He meantt that we must go in for the full treatment.
WE don't want that though. WE want a compromise where we can just have the veneer of the full treatment. However, this is impossible. it may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird, but it is a sight harder for it to fly while remaining an egg.
We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinatealy being just an ordinary, decent, egg. You must be hatched or go bad.
This is actually the whole of Christianity. It is not our works, not our missions, not our buildings. Just as it is easy to think about the government having a lot of different objects like military, political and economic service. However, it is simpler than that. The government exists simply to promote and to protect the happiness of its citizens. In the same way, the church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, buildings, services, etc. and even the Bible are a waste of time. jGod became man for no other purpose but to draw us to Him. In fact, it may be said that the whole universe was created for no other purpose.
Scripture: Matthew 5:48; 13:31-2
Let's talk about a real problem with the Christian life. It comes where people do not usually look for it. it comes at the very moment we wake up in the morning. At that first moment, when the cameras come on and the day starts, the hopes and wishes and dreams and fears and desires come rushing at us.
Our first job, then is to push them all back, instead of listening to them, and lsiten instead to that other voice, taking the other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, but quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. It becomes then, standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings, coming in out of the wind.
At first, we can only do it for moments at a time. But from these moments the new life will be spreading out into our system. In some ways it is an exercise of endurance, of building up the muscle of our faith. It is the difference between paint, which just covers the surface, and dye, which soaks rightg through. He never talked in vague idealism. Christ said, Go and be perfect. he meant it. He meantt that we must go in for the full treatment.
WE don't want that though. WE want a compromise where we can just have the veneer of the full treatment. However, this is impossible. it may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird, but it is a sight harder for it to fly while remaining an egg.
We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinatealy being just an ordinary, decent, egg. You must be hatched or go bad.
This is actually the whole of Christianity. It is not our works, not our missions, not our buildings. Just as it is easy to think about the government having a lot of different objects like military, political and economic service. However, it is simpler than that. The government exists simply to promote and to protect the happiness of its citizens. In the same way, the church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, buildings, services, etc. and even the Bible are a waste of time. jGod became man for no other purpose but to draw us to Him. In fact, it may be said that the whole universe was created for no other purpose.
# posted by Mark : 12:37 PM
