Apr 17, 2020
Focus text: 1 Peter 1:3-9
The prosperity, the peace, the security and the wealth that most of us have is a gift that we have done little or anything to deserve. We may build on, or squander that gift, but we have done nothing to deserve it. It is an unfair and wonderful gift to us. We may argue the toss about whether war really brings peace or protects freedoms, but the first ANZACs and those service men and women who have followed believed that this is what their service was for.(Volunteers and conscripts alike.) For this they fought, for this faced terror, for this they were injured and for this they even died. This was an unfair gift for us. On this second Sunday of Easter these unfair gifts can be used to illustrate another and greater unfair gift. We have been given “a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. 2, 000 years before we were born we were given the gift of Jesus which is forgiveness, reconciliation and new life. This is also an unfair and even more wonderful gift.
Questions for thought and discussion.
What unfair gifts have you received in your lifetime? How should we
best honour the gift given to us by our service men and women? How
should we respond to the gift of the person, death and resurrection
of Jesus?
I made a mistake with the timing of ANZAC Day thinking this Saturday was the 25th of April 2020 and not the 19th of April.
*****Rough Sermon Text*********
The wonderfully unfair gift of God’s love
I have probably told the story before about my year 11 English
class in my first year of teaching. The sylabus required that we
study so many poems.... Midnight Oil The forgotten years ... I
transcribed the lyrics and one of the students told me that I had
made a mistake I had transcribed a line “seasons of war and
grace...” At 4.28 on the 25th of April 1914.... national
identity.... peace.... for over 30 years from Vietnam... This is a
gift we have done nothing to deserve. As things in our world once
again seem to be becoming darker, both the seasons of war and grace
should not be forgotten years...
So what has this got to do with the first Easter and with any of
our readings? Well, just yesterday (ANZAC Day 2020) we honoured the
unfair gift of lives given... As Christians we are here to honour
something and someone far greater. In th words of first Peter “By
his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an
inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in
heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through
faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1
Peter 1:3–5, NRSV)
“for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of
your souls.”
Have you ever considered that before you were born or your parents were born. Jesus was born for you ...taught... ...healed... ...mixed with sinners... ...died... ...was raised... We are forgiven.... We have new life....
“By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” This is an unfair gift...
93 years before Midnight Oil wrote the forgotten years Rudyard Kipling wrote his hymn Recessional or “God of our Fathers, known of old...”, you might like to look it up - See below.
When Kipling wrote this famous hymn he wrote it not in memory of troops lost in battle, but to remind us that our foundation is God, in God’s great mercy or grace. When we take all the achievements of victory in war, of wealth, of peace, of prosperity, of empire or nation, for granted, then we are in trouble. Worse when we believe that all the blessings we have are of our own making, then we are in even deeper trouble. When we boast and trust in our pomp, our power, in “reeking tube” (the power of the gun, and cannon) or “the iron shard”, (The shot, the missile and the gun), when we believe that in these things our greatness lies, then we are in terrible trouble. Our blessings are an unfair gift they are the mercy of God.
It is in the risen power of God in Jesus by the Spirit that we trust. We should never forget how fortunate we are. As the third verse puts it. When the battle is over and the armies have departed, “still stands the ancient sacrifice, a humble and a contrite heart.” A recognition that all of this blessing and any victory that we might receive is not due to our power or goodness but is due to the living mercy the Grace and providence of God, the risen power the new life of Christ, the events of Easter, are far greater than any war, even when we are on thee side of victory. It is the truth that God was truly with us in Jesus, and through the Spirit is with us yet, providing for us, preserving us and giving us new life in this life and in the next. As Christians when we pray “O lord of hosts be with us yet,” we do not pray in vein. But just as we must not forget the years of war and grace and the gift they are to us we must not forget the life the healing the teaching, the death and the resurrection power of Jesus.
What Kipling puts in negative terms,1 Peter puts in very positive terms: “By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” .
We benefit from many unfair gifts, many graces. The gifts of all who have gone before us. All those who built the vision and the fabric and the tradition of Ipswich City Uniting Church, and so we honour them today. All those who risked and even gave their life in battle to preserve our nation, and so we honour them today. And above all God who made us and gave us the whole creation and through the giving of his very self in Jesus gives us new life. All of this we have done nothing to deserve. We simply receive and give thanks and honour. We must never forget these unfair gifts.
And so as Kipling urges, not to please God but in response to
all our living God has done and continues to do as a grace as a
free and unfair gift, in response to this gift we bring the ancient
sacrifice, a contrite and a humble heart.... We seek to follow
Jesus where he leads, loving and caring for all the needy
neighbours he gives us, and we follow too in the footsteps of all
those faithful examples who have gone before us, service men and
women, pioneers of the faith, evangelists, those who seek justice
and have compassion on the needy.
Instead of boasting or glorying in our blessing, our victories or
our achievements in the light of all these good people, and above
all in the light of God’s wonderful unfair gift to us in Jesus’
risen life, a life which we share, we come with in Kipling’s words
“the ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of
Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget-lest we forget!”
12. Hymn & Offering Recessional (tune AHB 74 Melita - Eternal
Father...)
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine-
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget-lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget-lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget-lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law-
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget-lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word-
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!