The Scriptures enjoin us to pray continually, and in all things and situations, but do we really do this?  My suspicion is that we don’t.  We either forget about it or not think about it, or we consider some things too big (like the war in Ukraine) or too small (like the common cold) to bother Him with.  This is entirely contrary to David’s advice in our psalm for today.  He suggests that God is our only hope, and that in God alone can we trust.  It is something well worth considering--and practicing.

A number of years ago there was a widespread notion, a very individualized idea of our relationship with Jesus. I called it the ‘me and Jesus’ syndrome. It emphasized just how wonderful it was to be in a relationship with Jesus, but left out any idea that this relationship might entail any sacrifices or make any demands on the believer. It dwelt simply on all the benefits that Jesus was giving that believer. And, what it totally left out was any sense that the person had any responsibilities towards anyone else, much less that we were on a journey with other believers. It was almost as if that person could live in a closet and would be alright.

But that is not the notion that we hear from today’s passage. There we read that Jesus’ journey--and presumably ours as well--has a downside, and that, on that road, there are other people, people who also need Jesus, and who may need our help in getting there. It is a much more complete, and balanced, way of looking at what it means to be a Christian. Thanks be to God.

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church.  It is an historical fact, but given that reality, what are we to make of it?  That is one of the questions that I try to touch on in today’s meditation.  It certainly displays and illustrates God’s care for the church, and for each one of us, that He would go to such lengths to give it such a ‘kick start.’  But, aside from that, to me at least, it underlines the priority of our mission on the one hand, and the importance of the Holy Spirit on the other.  Sadly, these are two things that often get forgotten or misplaced, but they are essential.  Let us, then, rediscover both and apply ourselves to them.

It would seem that, for many of us, there is a constant struggle for balance, for the proper proportions of activity versus stillness, or of serving others versus piety and simply being with God.  This is not to say that one is better or preferable to the other but that both are needed and important.  However, just how do we find the proper balance?  That is perhaps the central question of the story of Jesus with Martha and Mary: where, or how, do we find that balance?

Far too often this familiar parable, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, is taken as telling us that we can, after all, achieve salvation, eternal life, by loving God with all our beings and loving our neighbours as ourselves.  The trick is that neither is possible, if attempted in our own strength and ability.  That is indeed what the Old Testament Law was also designed to teach us, that is, to impel ourselves, to throw ourselves wholly on the mercy and grace of God, without which we could not ever hope to succeed.  It is a noble and worthy cause and aspiration nevertheless, so let us ask God for His great and wonderful assistance in this.

Seventy-two (seventy, in some translations) of Jesus’ followers were sent out to do His work in the world and were granted great results.  They were delighted, and possibly astounded.  But, in a real sense, compared to what we have seen and now know in terms of Jesus Christ and His career, this was ‘nothing’.  We have the fullness of His life, death and resurrection, and we have everything that took place afterwards (the coming of the Holy Spirit, the expansion of the Church, etc.). We are so very privileged, and so we should act accordingly.  We should live out His victorious life and share it with all those we meet.  Thanks be to God.

We need to be absolutely clear about this.  Firstly, that God is not some cosmic grouch or meanie when it comes to heaven and eternal life.  He offers the prospect to everyone, no matter who they are, simply as a gift that doesn’t have to be earned or merited in some way.  But, as with all gifts, it must be accepted, received as a deliberate act of faith in Jesus Christ.  No one will be excluded because they never had a chance or never heard of the offer of salvation.  God is fair and just and will make sure that everyone at least had the option.

However, on the other hand, the Scriptures are quite definite in saying that some people, when faced with this option, this offer, will say ‘no’, and so, by their own deliberate choice and decision, will lose out.  Heaven and eternal life will simply not be ‘in the works’ for them.

And so, today’s reading from Revelation is totally ‘on the mark.’  Some will say ‘yes’ and enter into what God has for us, and some will not.  It is as simple as that.

So, our task is to try to make sure that we, and everyone we know or meet, are in the ‘yes’ column, by agreeing to what God has for them.  That means that we should do our best to inform people about ‘this amazing offer’.

For most of us we will probably never know, at least on this side of eternity, the kind of impact we had on someone else’s life simply through a kind hello or gesture or a word of comfort and encouragement.  This was the kind of thing our 9:00 a.m. congregation did experience quite a while ago.  A homeless man had come into the church foyer, supposedly just to get warm.  Anyway, he was then invited to join us for the service, which invitation he duly accepted.  During the service, during the Passing of the Peace, everyone greeted him warmly, in spite of his dishevelled appearance and he being an absolute stranger.  Then, if I recall correctly, they invited him to join them for coffee.  Anyway, several days later I discovered that he’d come into the church to make his peace with God because he was planning to go out right away and ‘end it.’  However, because of the welcome and encouragement he’d received from that congregation, he decided against it.  Such was the impact of just a bit of encouragement.

During Wednesday’s Bible study, we touched on a verse that spoke of Jesus coming ‘to bring fire to the earth’ (Luke 12:49).  Here a spirited discussion ensued.  While many commentators understand this to mean ‘judgment’, they are not of one voice as to whom and when that this judgment will take place.  There are certainly Scriptural grounds for believing that God’s judgment will descend both on the church and on the world at large.  And while certainly there will be a Final Judgment, that is sure, there is also a question of some sort of God’s judgment taking place prior to that.  Certainly throughout the Hebrew Scriptures we see numerous instances of God’s more immediate judgment.  And when Jesus speaks of His own ‘baptism’ that He would undergo on our behalf, can this not also suggest that the judgment He is speaking of is His judgment of the world and its systems through His death and resurrection?  That too, is a strong possibility.

The other idea that came up during our Bible study was the idea of fire denoting God’s purifying, refining, and cleansing work in a believer’s life.  That certainly ties in with today’s psalm where we have two kinds of growth identified, some which is good and some which isn’t so good.  And it makes me wonder whether some pruning or weeding is sometimes in order, at least in our individual lives.  We tend to think about this kind of thing particularly in Lent and Advent but isn’t it a good thing to attend to all through the year.  And yes, perhaps even more so during the growing season, when we are thinking of such things in terms of our plants, lawns, and gardens.

If there’s anything that I ‘get’ from today’s passage from God’s holy word it is that we have a job to do, an immense and challenging job, but also one for which we are given all the resources that we will ever need.  We have been given the guidance of God’s word, the power and comfort of the Holy Spirit, and Christ’s abiding blessing and presence, which is surely sufficient for the task.  And so, my friends, on with it.

Trusting explicitly in God to provide all our needs: this is something probably most of us have trouble with.  This is especially so given the ingrained thinking we have that we should fend for ourselves and work to provide for ourselves and others, that is, to be diligent and responsible.  Indeed, is this not also the clear teaching of Scripture?  This, I sense, is not what Jesus is getting at in His injunctions against worrying.  He is advising us not to worry or fret or become preoccupied with such things, but to merely ‘get on with the job’ and do what needs to be done.  If we seek His kingdom, the work He has given us to do, everything else will fall into place.

Listening, or better, hearing, are such an integral and necessary part of living as a Christian, and so too is reading God’s word, understanding it, and applying it.  Indeed, as James points out, it is like observing oneself in a mirror, for it shows us as we really are.  If you’re at all like me some mornings, I wonder who that ‘old guy’ is, but that’s the point, it shows us as we are, and then, hopefully prompts us to deal with it.

Probably most of us, at some time or other, yearn for the ‘good old days’ (or at least the way we remember them), or, at very least, an improvement in the way that things are just now.  I believe that the answer comes from concerted prayer, both individually and as a group, from turning to God and asking for His help and His direction.  This has ‘worked’ to turn things around in the past, and I do believe that it could happen again.

The Scriptures are most adamant that we need to do more than just pay attention and listen.  They also bid us, just as would any teacher or parent, to act on those instructions, that is, to obey.  And here today’s Scriptures are rather pointed: they suggest that our obedience to God’s direction, God’s words, is an outward sign of our love for Him.  That puts a rather pointed sense to it.  Disobedience = a lack of love?  Yuck.  May we, you and I, never fall prey to that.

Scripture and history both tell us that mere interest in something, mere curiosity, is never enough.  They need to be translated into making a decision, into action.  Sadly, we see this with Herod Antipas and with the crowds that thronged around Jesus.  They were glad to see and hear but not to respond.  So, what can transform them?  On the day of Pentecost we see the crowd finally coming around, so maybe it is the action of the Holy Spirit.  If this be so, let us pray that the Holy Spirit will move in a powerful and dynamic way among the hosts of people today who still have not chosen to follow Jesus.

It is so very easy, and natural, to become almost totally preoccupied with the day to day details of simply living that we forget the things of God or forget what God has done for us.  This happened to the Hebrew people when they went from their long sojourn in the Wilderness into the Promised Land.  Why, there were houses to build, crops and livestock to attend to, and families to raise.  And, in a sense, this is what has happened to much of our present generation.  Earlier on, recalling what God had done was still relatively fresh in their minds, but as time went on, the memory became dimmer and dimmer, so such a point that our present generation is scarcely aware of it at all.  Instead, they are absorbed in home and workplace and hockey games and dance lessons, and a myriad of other things.  God somehow either disappears from the picture or becomes rather remote.  This is why telling His story, and our stories of His doings, becomes all the more important.  May God give us the means to do so, and the opportunity and timing.  Amen.

I guess that it is one of our recurrent and prevalent human failings, namely, to think that our way of thinking and behaving is the natural way--and the right way, and then passing judgment on those who don’t ‘happen’ to see it our way.  And, sadly, we often wrap this up with the trappings of religiosity with the effect that it seems even more right thing to believe or do.  So, Paul’s advice to leave off judgment in many matters, and simply leave it to God, is rather sound advice.

The Scriptures seem to make a distinction between listening and hearing.  By this, I understand ‘listening’ to refer to the outward ability to receive what has been said, that is, to take in the words, and ‘hearing’ to understand them and apply them.  This, I would assert, is a crucial difference, one that also applies to us.  God wants us to do more than simply take in His message but also to apply it, to obey it.  That is what really identifies us as His family, as His disciples, as the ones who belong to Him.