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Take My Life Series of Sermons 2 - Summer 2011

 7.  Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold’

-‘Money, Money, Money’

“For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have...” (2 Cor. 8, 12). “...All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” (Luke 21, 4).

The gift of generosity; being generous doesn’t come naturally. At best, we give to get, or else feel impelled to give of what we have already got. As Christians we are encouraged to give, for the sake of giving. All of us have something we can give. None of us is so poor that we can give nothing at all; none of us is so rich that we can get away with giving less than we ought. Possession and ownership are concepts that are of great significance. We take pride in what we possess, and enjoy the measure of control that ownership brings. In reality what we presently own we only own for the present. Before us it belonged to somebody else, and after us it will belong to somebody else. Our possessions, sooner or later will be possessed by others. Ideally we should be able to arrive at the conclusion that everything belongs to everybody because nothing belongs to nobody. The French thinker, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was surely on to something when in 1840 he declared that, ‘Property is theft’, echoing the thoughts of Rousseau, in 1754, "The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying 'This is mine,' and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody." So when we are encouraged to be generous with what we presently have, we have to realise that what we presently own or possess is not really ours at all. ‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof...’ (Psalm 24,1). Paul, as well as being a theologian and missionary was also a very effective fundraiser. One of the many so-called ‘missionary’ journeys he undertook was in fact a fund-raising tour, collecting money from the newly established Christian communities scattered across what we know today as Turkey and Greece in order to help alleviate the consequences of a famine that have overtaken Jerusalem, and wider Palestine. His ‘pitch’ was fairly uncompromising – everything you have, is because of the grace of God. God has given that which is most precious to Him, His eternal Son, so that we might receive that which is now most precious to us, our salvation in Christ. What is our response to this act of generosity...not that our salvation is in any way conditional upon our response...if it were so it would not be a gift...but if it were a gift properly appreciated then our response could not but be, ‘Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold’. Moreover, says Paul, true generosity shows itself in the way it is expressed. If you can’t give cheerfully, don’t give at all. We often describe generosity of this kind as ‘Charity’ – from the Latin, ‘Caritas’, whose original meaning related to that which was precious, or dear to one; highly valued in every respect. Real generosity, true charity should cost us dear. Yet it is a necessary outworking of our faith. Not for nothing is it at the heart of each of three Abrahamic faiths – the Jewish ‘Tzedakah’, and the Islamic ‘Sadaqah’ alongside Christian ‘charity’. But there has to be more to it than that. Charity, Caritas, has to become a way of living – unlimited loving kindness – indiscriminate, altruistic, sacrificial – nothing less will do. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13). Love, if not expressed in charity is no love at all. Charity dispensed in a manner that is devoid of love is no charitable act. And of course, in our day, it is ‘money that makes the world go around’, and any charitable act, any truly generous act, its most obvious expression is in the giving of money. It is why the giving of money is an integral part of our worship; it is a tangible expression of our gratefulness to God done in such a way as to be of practical use to others, in God’s name and for God’s sake. The challenge for each and for all of us is to be willing to acknowledge that nothing we have is ours by right, not even our money; that money of itself is nothing at all – indeed the financial chaos impacting all around the world can be said to have been created, at least in part, by the so-called ‘commodification’ of money. So then, the money that is presently ours to control, to what use is it being put? Could it be used more usefully? Do we really need as much of it? Are there not others who need it more? Might it not be better that we who are rich should become poor, so that our riches might alleviate the poverty of others? And anyway, the best things in life are free – the ‘free gift’ of God is salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

8.  ‘Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose’

‘It’s all in the mind - The Gift of Curiosity’

“...So they answered Jesus, ‘we don’t know’...” (Matthew 21, 27a). “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1, 25).

“If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." – attributed to Isaac Newton – inscribed on the edge of the £2 coin; although seemingly first used centuries earlier by Bernard of Chartres who said that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size. This is represented visually in the stained glass of the south transept of Chartres Cathedral. The tall windows under the Rose Window show the four major prophets of the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) as gigantic figures, and the four New Testament evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) as ordinary-size people sitting on their shoulders. The evangelists, though smaller, "see more" than the huge prophets (since they saw the Messiah about whom the prophets spoke). Faith based religion, of which the Christian religion is the supreme expression, is a religion of the heart and of the mind; indeed, faith itself is of the heart and of the mind, having to be both emotional and rational. Any religion, any expression of so-called religious faith that is either ‘heartless’, or ‘mindless’ cannot but be a recipe for disaster, as history all too readily illustrates. It was Anselm, writing in the C12 who described living as a Christian in terms of ‘Faith seeking understanding’, which meant, effectively, ‘an active love of God seeking a deeper knowledge of God’. Paul, in a moment of poignant reflection, writing to Timothy, his death immanent, remarks that, ‘I know whom I have believed...’ The one thing about the Christian faith that does challenge the assumed status quo, particularly in respect of the intellectual revolution generated by the so-called enlightenment, is that it does demand that our heart rule our head, though not to the extent that we represent ourselves as ‘headless chickens’. Indeed, the very nature of religious belief ought to demand that we engage in a heightened critical enquiry. There is a very real sense in which faith, the Christian faith, asks more questions of us, than provides us with answers; in turn requiring of us that we ask even more questions, even when no answers appear immediately obvious. It was the playwright Eugine O’Neill who introduced us to the idea that, ‘Curiosity killed a cat’ in a play of 1920, yet Alice in Wonderland describes her new found world as one about which she is ‘curiouser and curiouser’. In reality, curiosity has to be satisfied, and this we do by exercising our minds. Scientific advance has to happen, and should be encouraged accordingly. But it cannot happen in a vacuum; amoral science is a contradiction in terms. Nothing we say or do will stop the inexorable path of progress, but we can shape its destiny. ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’, if that were to serve as the moral imperative for scientific advancement, imagine how different the economic, social and political landscape would appear. But where will it all end? The engagement between science and religion is at its sharpest around issues to do creation; its origins and its vastness. The Hubble telescope has allowed to see into space distances so vast as to be beyond our comprehension. Is the Universe too big even for God, or is it that the very magnitude of all there is serves as the most eloquent testimony to the glory and grandeur of God? ‘O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works Thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, the power throughout the universe displayed’...At the heart of the Christian Gospel is the contention that this otherwise glorious God, who transcends space and time is particularly interested in each one of us, as individuals; in Jesus, the Eternal Son of God is seen divested of all such glory, that of the only begotten Son of the Father, the One in and through and for whom all that has been made is made, to such an extent that He is to be found in human form, humbled upon a cross...’Hands that flung stars into space to cruel nails surrendered’... And as Christians we should not be afraid to apply our critical faculties, our intellectual capacity, our innate curiosity to that which we believe; most especially with regard to the Bible. The Bible is sufficiently robust to defend itself from within its own pages without the requirement of any external imprimatur...the claim that ‘all Scripture is God breathed’ is one that emerges from Scripture itself, it is one that is imposed upon it. And lest we forget, intellectual curiosity does not necessarily demand a conclusion that is irreducibly complex, if only to justify the energy we have expended. There is beauty in simplicity. The Nineteenth century Danish philosopher, Kierkegaard, concluded that, ‘The Bible gives me Jesus and Jesus gives me God’. While the twentieth century Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, was heard to remark that all one needs to know is that, ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so’. More often than not the answer is a squirrel, but just occasionally, it might be, Jesus. So, we should highly value the God-given gift of curiosity, the ability to enquire critically into every aspect of life; to question, to wonder, to imagine; to be critical, to test the evidence, to want to know. But alongside which there has to be a humility such that when we do discover what for us is the truth, when we do realise that we do know what we believe, that the answer for us is Jesus; that we let it be so even if it means that we appear foolish in the eyes of others, the so-called worldly wise. We are called to be fools for Christ, but not in an idiotic way.

  

9.  ‘Take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine

‘The Gift of Determination’

‘...When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her...’ (Ruth 1, 18). ‘...Jesus replied, “No-one who takes hold of the plough and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God”...’ (Luke 9, 62).

‘I’ve started so I’ll finish’ – Mastermind catchphrase. Trivial in itself, but could easily stand as a parable for life itself. The Risen Christ is described as Alpha & Omega – the first & the last, the beginning and the end. Paul talks of the God who has ‘begun a good work within us carrying it on to completion’. We have it within us, by the grace of God, the ability to finish that to which we are called. Sadly, for so many they never have the courage to commit themselves to whatever because even before they have begun they have persuaded themselves, or else have been persuaded by others that they will not succeed. And of course it never is easy. Commitment demands determination. Living a life committed to Christ and His Church requires a determination that is beyond us alone. Jesus, wrestling in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane immediately prior to His arrest, making it known to God that if He had His way, Jesus would let ‘this cup pass from Him’ – the ‘cup of suffering’, the ‘cup of salvation’ – yet realising in that instant, in that moment of innate vulnerability, of naked honesty that, ‘not my will but mine be done’: the paradox of living Christianly, when we think we can do it, we find out we cannot; when we have the courage to acknowledge that we cannot, then we find we are enabled so that we can. Peter walks on the water; as long as His eyes are on Jesus he can manage, the moment he turns his eyes away to notice the strength of the sea, he begins to sink. The young man who comes seeking a miracle of healing from Jesus, crying out, ‘Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief.’ No wonder Jesus requires of us that whenever we pray, we ask that, ‘God’s will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven’. Free Will has always been a matter of great controversy within Christian Theology, itself a reflection of the wider, philosophical debate concerning the measure of freedom that any human being might have. Just how free are we? We are free to make choices, many trivial, some profound. At the same time we have no choice but to choose, we cannot avoid making choices; fence-sitting is at best uncomfortable and at worst incredibly painful. ‘If you are not for me, said Jesus, you are against me’. This is the illusion of freedom, of free-will, that Martin Luther described as, ‘The Bondage of the Will’. Such freedom is a nightmare; everybody having to choose, everybody’s choices impacting on everybody else; breeding dissatisfaction, frustration and despair. Sentiments beautifully summed up by Paul, ‘When I want to do good, evil is right there with me...what a wretched man I am.’  Paul’s great insight, which is at the heart of Luther’s understanding, is that real freedom is not, freedom to choose but rather, freedom to be. In Christ God makes it possible for us to be the person we are intended to be, who we ought to be, who we can be, who we should be. But only if we live according to the revealed will of God, made real in Jesus. That freedom to be is always and forever ours, whatever else may be happening around us. However much our freedom to choose might be compromised, our freedom to be is exactly that. ‘Make me a captive Lord, and then I shall be free, force me to render up my sword and I shall conqueror be.’  This is why we should be forever exhorting people not so much to do the best they can, but to be the best they can be. If we could order society more along the lines of ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’ how much more ordered society would be. So, as Christians, we need the determination to be the best we can be, because even within the Church there will be those siren voices that will seek to tempt us into believing that favour with God can be found according to what we do. There will be times when we cannot do what we want to do; but that will not prevent us from being who we are meant to be. Indeed who we are meant to be, who we can be, who we really are often emerges out of adversity; that is when real determination shows itself. God grants us the wherewithal to deal with anything and everything and emerge with our integrity, our dignity, our essential being untouched. It is only when we subordinate ambition to vocation that we realise who we ought to be; when we leave behind what we want to be in order to embrace who we must be, regardless, then we will realise who we are meant to be. It is only when we subordinate selfish ambition to selfless vocation that we realise who we really are; when we leave behind what we imagine we are in order to embrace who we really are, come what may. It is only when we subordinate selfish, material ambition to selfless, spiritual vocation that we realise who we are intended to be; when we leave behind what we know we want in order to embrace who we really need. All of this will require great commitment, a strength of character, an immense personality, an inspired heart and a dedicated soul; a desire to be perfect even as, ‘Our Father in Heaven is perfect’; a determination to accomplish this...Thy will be done...in me.

  

10.  ‘Take my heart, it is Thine own. It shall be Thy royal throne’

‘The Gift of Commitment’

“...Yield your hearts to the Lord...” (Joshua 24, 23b). “...Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also...” (Matthew 6, 21).

Two words to haunt today’s society: indifference and half-heartedness – this is what appears to be the don’t care, couldn’t care, won’t care, can’t care, who cares generation. And what is true for wider society can be just as true as far as the Church is concerned. The essential message of the Christian Gospel concerns God’s commitment to us, to each and to all. In creation God is committed to ensuring that all that has been made, is being made, will be made is good, even very good and such is the nature of God’s commitment to the creation that God did not, does not, and will not rest until it is finished. That commitment is fleshed out in the man Jesus. We in turn are called to respond in like manner; and gifted accordingly, in and through the Holy Spirit, to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to God by living and dying as followers of Jesus. The Church exists in order that such commitment might be enabled, harnessed, shared, developed, refined; might be made productive, and fruitful, that ultimately might know its own reward – Paul’s great doxology, ‘I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day...’ . Any such commitment has to be heart-felt. Living as a Christian is, essentially, nothing to do with giving intellectual assent to the proposition, God exists; rather it is all to do with daring to believe in one’s heart that there is a God, and to live one’s life as if one’s life depended upon it. As the Psalmist points out, ‘the fool has said in his heart there is no God...’ Anyone who has a heart can make a commitment to God, can be gifted sufficiently for that commitment to make a difference regardless of their IQ; although vital to any sense of total commitment is the commitment of one’s IQ to the cause – ‘loving the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind...’ – but the order here is crucial; heart and soul, then strength and mind, rather different from how the so-called ‘worldly wise’ might imagine how life ought to be lived. This commitment then, is an existential commitment, lived out in life; it is a way of being; indeed the only way to be; it is what we are, because if it is anything at all it will determine who we are. Listen to a well-known passage, slightly changed, ‘If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have commitment, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have commitment, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have commitment, I gain nothing. Commitment is patient, commitment is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Commitment does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Commitment never fails...’ – As far as a Christian world-view is concerned, commitment is love, because at the heart of the Gospel message is the claim that, without love there is no commitment, and without commitment there can be no love. And so, God can never be satisfied with something of some of us, not even with everything of some of us. Neither can God be satisfied with something of all of us; God is only satisfied with everything of all of us. If we are prepared to so commit ourselves, each and all, then we will appreciate what it means to say, God loves me: nothing will be allowed to separate us from the love of God as demonstrated in Christ Jesus, nothing in the whole of creation can come between God’s love and us. And how is this commitment to work itself out in this everyday world? Our proper response to God’s commitment to us in love is to commit ourselves to each and to all others in Jesus’ name, and for Jesus’ sake. It is to be universal, indiscriminate, non-judgemental, forgiving, accepting and affirming of each and everyone, because whosoever will, may come. Being totally committed to God does not mean that such commitment is at the expense of all else, rather it means that whatever else we may be committed to; no longer is that commitment for its own sake, rather it is understood to be consequent upon our commitment to God, and where there is conflict in commitment something will have to give...’You can’t serve God and money...’, so what is it that we truly treasure? Who or what is it that has won our heart? That was the essence of Joshua’s challenge to the Israelites; their professed commitment to God, were their hearts really in it? if our heart is really in it, then so will be our time, out talent, our energy, our money, our loyalty, our fidelity, our courage, our integrity; all that we have, and all that we are, and then some more too. But this is how it has to be; there are large numbers of people, whole sections of society for whom and to whom nobody has been prepared to make any form of commitment whatsoever, without which they continue to exist in the shadows, on the margin, in the twilight; barely seen, hardly noticed, easily ignored; nobody to love because nobody has any love for them. God loves them, as surely as God loves me. And if God loves me, if my love for God is real, I have to love them too. In 2013, Billy Graham’s son, Franklin will be leading a crusade in London, invoking the spirit of 1957. Many so-called ‘critics’ continue to be dismissive of Billy Graham’s preaching; lacking style and substance. May be? But the message was simple, ‘God loves you...’ and that’s it in a nutshell, how do we respond when we hear those words echoing down the years, ‘God loves you’?

  

11.  ‘Take my love, my Lord I pour at Thy feet its treasure store’

 “O Lord...keep this desire in the hearts of Your people for ever, and keep their hearts loyal [devoted] to You” (1 Chr.29, 18). “Be on Your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.” (1 Cor. 16, 13-14).

Devotion; loyalty, fidelity – a particular form of commitment – emphasising the lengths to which one is prepared to go for something or someone, regardless; however much the evidence appears to suggest the contrary is true, still one is prepared to have faith, to be devoted, true and loyal to what one believes to be the truth. And of course, to the unbeliever this can seem to be pointless, wasteful and demeaning. This is illustrated by that well-known episode in the Gospels concerning the woman anointing Jesus feet with perfume and drying it with her hair; ‘pouring at His feet, her treasure store...’ The level of devotion necessary for one to be sustained in the life of faith makes great demands upon us. Devotion demands discipline; a life devoted to God is a life disciplined by God. A life devoted to the service of others demands extraordinary self-discipline. And so, the emergence within the life of the church of what some refer to as, ‘the daily office’, or what we within the Free Churches are more likely to refer to as, ‘daily devotions’; being brought up in the Christian Endeavour Movement, being encouraged from a very young age, ‘to pray to Him and read the Bible every day’. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds his readers that, ‘they are not to neglect meeting together with one another...as some have done’. Essential to the discipline of the devotional life is meeting together for worship on a regular basis; most especially attendance at the Lord’s Table and participation in Communion. These are not optional extras as far as living Christianly is concerned, rather they are necessary for anyone who is serious about their devotion to God, and to other people, for God’s sake. The level of one’s devotion to any particular cause will invariably depend on the degree to which one is persuaded by its merits. The New Testament uses two words to describe this sense of persuasion which on first hearing seem to be at odds with the essential claims of the Gospel: compulsion, and constraint. Jesus talks of the Master’s servants being sent out into the highways and hedgerows to ‘compel’ them to come in, so that ‘His house might be full’. The Gospel story of itself is a ‘love-story’ of an intensity otherwise unnimanageable, which by its very nature demands a response; and such is its intensity that any such response is itself intense, one is either repelled by it or compelled by it, the effectiveness of the compulsion of Divine love. ‘He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him, Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God’...’the stone the builders rejected...’ The Apostle Paul talks of ‘the love of Christ constraining Him’...’giving Him no choice’; whatever may be happening in life, and for Paul there was much hardship directly attributable to His having become a Christian, nevertheless, still he felt ‘constrained’, ‘having no choice’, such was the devotion to His Lord, as someone, who had effectively been both compelled and constrained by the love of God as revealed in and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Our devotion shows itself in our recognising what we ought to be and do – compelled as such – and what we must be and do – constrained accordingly – this is real devotion. Not fickle in any way, neither attaching oneself to the latest fad or fancy, nor bending to the wind whichever way it blows; always to be relied upon, utterly dependable, never counting the cost, never asking why; not stopping to count the cost, neither pausing to weigh the odds, nor calculating how one might profit. Faith, what to believe in, has become a market place of itself; one is encouraged to choose for oneself where to put one’s trust, one’s loyalty, one’s commitment, one’s devotion. It might be a religion, or an ideology, or a philosophy, or a ‘none of the above’; as long as one has something or someone to believe that will suffice. Over against the trite superficiality of this particular example of supermarket sweep, there is something strangely reassuring about what it means to be a Christian; Jesus telling the disciples that, ‘they did not choose Him’, rather that, ‘He chose them’. ‘It is by grace that we are saved, through faith...and that not of ourselves’. It is not that we choose to believe in God, but rather that God in Christ declares that God believes in us. Out of love, that faith is laid bare, agonisingly, crucifyingly so. Being a Christian is nothing to do with whether or not we choose of ourselves to be a Christian, rather it is all to do with how we respond to such love; how we respond determines who we are in respect of Christ. God intends that our response be nothing less than a life totally devoted to following in Jesus’ footsteps; wherever, whenever, whatever. And this can only be by the grace of God – hence David’s heartfelt prayer for his people, a prayer for all God’s people, that our hearts might be kept ‘devoted’ to God – and Paul’s impassioned exhortation, ‘to be on our guard, firm in the faith, courageous, strong, doing everything in love’, this is devotion; the treasure store of love we are always and forever pouring at the feet of Jesus.

  

12.  “Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee”

‘ The Gift of Consecration’

“As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience.” (Col. 3, 12). “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth” (John 17, 16).

Consecration treads a fine line between separation and alienation. ‘In the world, but not of it’; as Christians we are called to be separated from much of what passes for everyday living but in such a way so as not to alienate those from whom we are necessarily separate. Somehow or another we have to find a way to navigate our way through life; maintaining our essential integrity, not succumbing to the seemingly inevitable compromise, sufficient that we emerge with our dignity intact, without having tarnished our reputation along the way. In short, we have to find a way of life that is ‘Holy living’, a ‘Godly lifestyle’, but one lived in such a way that those who presently do not live that way themselves are attracted to it rather than repulsed by it. There is the very real danger that we take the ‘easy way out’; living by ourselves, with ourselves and for ourselves alone. Our only ‘contact’ with those who are not as we are being in terms of the criticism we bring to bear upon them for the way they conduct themselves, criticism that can be so vehement that all it does is cause people to believe that they are always and forever beyond saving, beyond forgiving, beyond being set free. This was how it was in Jesus’ day. The religious establishment prided itself that it was not as others were, parading themselves for all to see, their self-righteous arrogance proudly on display. These were the people whom Jesus warned that, ‘tax-collectors and sinners would enter the Kingdom of God before them...’indeed, ‘woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.’ A consecrated life is not a different life, it’s the same life lived differently. Being a Christian will not mean necessarily that one enjoys increased material prosperity though it might. Being a Christian will not mean necessarily that one will live any longer though it might. It will not mean, necessarily that one will be any more successful, any more powerful, any more influential, though it might. When difficulties in marriage and family life arise, Christians are not exempt. When redundancies are declared, Christians are not excused. When illness threatens, Christians are not immune. It’s not a different life, but it is the same life lived differently. It is about, as Paul stated, dealing with life, and everything that is to do with life, with ‘compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience’. There is a sense that, once we realise this, that consecration, is not so much an act of God, being set apart, but rather our setting ourselves apart for God in the way we live – what the theologian Kierkegaard referred to as the, ‘infinite qualitative distinction’ that characterises the life of faith, a life imbued with ‘Godly living’. If we are prepared to commit ourselves in this way, God’s promise to us is that we will discover within ourselves the wherewithal necessary for Godly living, a way of living that will evidence itself in every aspect of life. It is this way of life that we have been exploring over these past months, considering what it means to live a Godly life in the C21 – ‘the Gifts of the Spirit’ for the C21. Life itself: the most profound ‘gift of all’, but a life that is limited according to the ‘gift’ of time. The ability to be creative, to be mobile, to express ourselves; to have conversation, to be generous, to be curious, to be determined, committed, devoted, consecrated. Whatever our life is, it is our life, and we only have one life. The challenge is, what will we make of this one life? We can live it in a particular way, one which, superficially at least appears attractive, even seductive, a way of living that is hard to deny and many find themselves journeying along a road that is sufficiently broad to accommodate all who are hell-bent on self-destruction, and the destruction of others. But there is another way, one that is altogether more narrow, less appealing, though ultimately more satisfying. It is the way mapped out by Jesus, the way of the stable, the cross, and the empty tomb, Pentecost and beyond. If we dare turn our backs on the broad way, and instead choose the narrow path we will discover God to be with us, God’s living Spirit inspiring us, encouraging us, strengthening us, enabling us and equipping us for all we might need for the journey. And as we travel that way, these same ‘gifts’ of the Spirit will become the ‘fruits’ of the Spirit; the God who will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory, those needs will be met from within ourselves, and among ourselves. Two words that haven’t featured throughout this series serve to sum up all we have been saying; courage, and love. We have nothing to fear, perfect love casts out fear. God is love, and Godly living is ‘living to love’. All that prevents us living this way is ourselves; what is it that we are afraid of? What is it about ourselves that will deny us this ‘more abundant life’. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Let us not be afraid, but rather let us reach out in love to those who would otherwise always and forever be afraid. Let us set ourselves apart for God’s service, consecrated, Lord, for Thee...