Sunday Talks

There’s a very plain challenge that hits us from Titus 2 - Does it fit?

And no, Paul isn’t asking his colleague on Crete if his clothes are the right size. There’s a much deeper concern. He wants Titus to challenge the Christians about whether their behaviour matches what they believe. Is your way of life consistent with your way of belief!

We’re all by now familiar with weather warnings. Here in Ireland we get a colour to match the perceived severity of what’s coming. Thankfully, the colours currently active for today are just yellow and orange rather than a Valentine’s Day red! For Christians living on the island of Crete in the 1st Century, the apostle Paul begins to write what could be described as a Status Red cultural warning. That storm is, in fact, already hitting the island.

There’s a big gap in our lives as Christians, I know the longing we all feel to be back together – that’s a gap in our experience alright, but not the one I specifically have in mind this morning. There are gaps in our understanding too – I feel them, you feel them. None of us knows all we need to know – but those are not the gaps I’m referring to here. Neither is it the gap in our lives left by loved ones who are no longer with us, or the gap in our lives left by restrictions closing down many of the things we do and places we go to. Or if you’re a bit younger, the gap left in your smile when one of your baby teeth falls out! The gap I’m talking about is the gap between what we believe and how we live in our lives. The gap between belief and behaviour. Paul sees that big gap as one of his greatest concerns as he writes to Titus, a Christian leader.

There was utter devastation, with vast areas of scorched, burnt bushland left behind, following the Australian bushfires in 2019.

Then some photographers captured an amazing sight. Vibrant green and pink shoots were seen rising up in the middle of blackened forests! The photographers described the hope they felt – seeing shoots of life in the middle of all the charred mess. And they shared the pictures as widely as they could to give others hope.

Parts of the bible, like the one we are looking at today, provided - and still provide - a glimpse of hope like that for people.

Isaiah uses the same picture – a fresh, green shoot - when it seemed that God’s promises in and through the house and line of David were finished.

So here in these chapters, the Bible gives us hope. Here’s the thing: there’s reality behind the imagery. When Isaiah prophesied, he was declaring the line of God’s ultimate hope for the lost and the hope-starved. He was sharing real, tangible hope with the fearful and the broken. And that hope is for you and your family and your neighbours and friends, too.

We’re in the middle of a repeat of lockdown so maybe you’re back into a repeat of home schooling or working from home. This section of Isaiah has the feel of repetition about it too, as this Biblical prophet calls God’s people to respond to God’s word.

Here’s the thing about repetition: it gives us an opportunity to respond differently. There’s scope to change our thinking

In these chapters, as he declares God’s word, Isaiah’s urgent message to God’s people in his own day, and today is meant to call us to turn back to the Lord of Hosts (9:13) who hasn’t changed.

This week at Blackrock we heard from the Director of Christian Unions Ireland - Mark Ellis. Mark leads a team of staff who are working with students across the island to equip them in giving every student an opportunity to respond to the message of the Gospel. This morning he brings us a message from Mark 9. 

It was a passing comment this week, from someone who has experienced so many knocks to her business this year. She said: I don’t know what kind of God is looking down on us... is he just toying with us?

But the very opposite is true. God is not toying with us. God has shown us extraordinary mercy.

At the start of a new year, I’d love for all of us in Blackrock to set out living in 2021 with the mercies of God in full view. And to allow his mercies towards us to be the actions that define how we live our lives this year.

Household visits are limited this Christmas. But via live stream, there are two guests to welcome in to your home for just a couple of minutes. Hear them out, as they have something important to say.

Both of them will draw your attention to the reason for Jesus’ coming as a baby at the first Christmas. That’s the purpose of these visits to your home... so Luke can show us, help us to recognise that Jesus was not just for Christmas.

As well as counting down to this Christmas, let’s look back at the first one. There are 3 instalments of the Christmas story in this part of Luke’s gospel. Luke gives us the circumstances, the explanation and the response to the birth of Jesus.

We have called this series A Call to Faithfulness. Deep into December you may feel there are too many calls on your time and energy! But please allow this most significant of calls to register with you personally, for these few moments as we read from the Bible. The lines of today's passage you may have heard hundreds of times. Christmas after Christmas. What we need to hear again isn’t their familiarity, but their powerful, repeated call, a call to trust in God rather than our own solutions. Some of us may be quietly wondering how to navigate the new circumstances of our lives at this very different or even difficult Christmas. Well, the Bible points us clearly, here in Isaiah chapter 9, to the most trustworthy of sources: to the amazing promises, determined zeal, and hope-lit salvation of the Lord of hosts...