Urban Vineyard

Simon carries on our series on the miracles of the kingdom by looking at the way Jesus deputises his disciples to carry on the works of healing and deliverance which he began. Along the way, Simon shares from his own stories of trying to be on hand for that which is at hand.

The french philosopher Blaise Pascal once quipped that "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." He was referring to our penchant for divergence and distraction when faced with the uncomfortable realities of our human fragility and finitude. In this sermon, Jonathan looks at two people in Mark's Gospel who, rather than seeking distraction, brought their hopeless situations before Jesus, told the truth about their lives, and let him meet them in their sorrow. Along the way, they experienced the consolation of God and the miracle of the kingdom. Jesus seeks to meet us as well in that place of truth telling about our lives.

In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus does something perplexing for a paralysed man; in response to the faith of his friends, he forgives the paralytic's sins. We, like the scribes, are baffled by this seemingly unauthorised gift. How can Jesus forgive if he hasn't already gone to the cross? The answer turns out to be that Jesus has always had authority to forgive; it is a gift he loves to offer us. Hear these words, therefore: God forgives you; forgive others, forgive yourself. Amen.

N.T Wright once quipped that "the gospel is good news, not good advice." In this sermon, Jonathan reflects on the great 'news' that Jesus has authority over evil spirits. He points out how this lines up with the witness of the New Testament where we read that "the Son of God was revealed: in order to destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8) and the early church (where the apostles themselves summed up Jesus' ministry by saying "he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil" (Acts 10:38). Jesus' work of setting people free from tormenting spirits was a cornerstone of his ministry. This was good news then and it is good news now. However, the trouble with the news that Jesus has authority over evil spirits is that it can kind of roll off the tongue as a religious confession without necessarily having a great depth of conviction beneath it; it's easy to say it, but do you believe it? Do you believe he continues to want to set people free from evil spirits? Do you even believe evil spirits are real? Do you believe they are closer than you might like to think? If you say yes, you are in agreement with Jesus and the apostles, as well as the vast majority of the global and historic church, but still, it puts you into culturally awkward territory. We live in a time where evil tends to explained as a systemic issue rather an spiritual one but such a dichotomy is unnecessary. Evil undoubtably works in systems but it is more than the sum of its component parts; there is a very real personal presence at work that seeks to bring chaos to our lives and our world. Jesus has come to cast it out; that is truly good news. We can become shy when it comes to this topic, or we can become unnecessarily weird about it. In this sermon, Jonathan encourages us to be neither of those things but that instead to simply acknowledge that evil spirits are real and that as we make more room for Jesus, they will have to leave. We don't need to go chasing demons; we just need to keep making room for Jesus. The good news is that it is a win-win strategy. Healing, deliverance, freedom, and everything we need, is found in his presence. It is his presence that casts out everything that afflicts; so let's continue to run toward God, or as the Apostle John put it: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God... in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him... God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him... There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:7-9, 16,18)

What is grace? And what does it have to do with the kind of kingdom Jesus spoke of? There is perhaps no-where better to go to understand that question than to Jesus' parable of the prodigal son in Luke 16. In this sermon, Makerita brings us back to the heart of the good news of God's grace which we find in the kingdom of God.

The parable of the unrighteous manager is one of the strangest stories Jesus ever told. In this sermon, Jonathan considers whether we might have misunderstood the character of the master in the parable and whether a reappraisal might reveal a fresh view on God. Once again, in this parable Jesus goes right to the heart of our anxieties about the future and reminds us that the only place of safety is in joining his radical work of repudiating mammon and entering the world of generosity that is the coming kingdom of God.

NOTE: The original live recording of this sermon was unfortunately lost so Makerita kindly has re-recorded her presentation for us and we are very grateful!

Jesus told the parable of the weeds and wheat to remind us that our lives are agonisingly caught between the present – where evil runs amok – and the future – where all shall be well. Like the servants in the parable, our temptation is to crusade out into the world in the name of justice to go and deal with evil, but Jesus, through the parable, reminds us that we have neither the wisdom, discernment nor the ability to root out the weeds. Indeed, such a crusade turns us into little devils along the way. So the parable leaves us in a difficult position. On it's own it seems to lead us into 'Christian quietism'; a kind of 'do nothing' approach to the weeds in our world. Such an amoral response doesn't line up with the rest of Scripture though; it seems completely out of step with the prophetic tradition, so there must be more going on than meets the eye. In this sermon, Jonathan opens up a larger view of the parable by putting into the conversation with the parable of the yeast in the dough. In the end, he suggests we are neither called into quietism or crusading when it comes to our response to the evil in the world and the evil in our own hearts. Instead, we are called into a dynamic partnership with God; trusting that he is the one who is reforming the world and reforming us. We add what looks to everyone else as something so tiny and insignificant, namely, our hidden act of faith, which on it's own achieves nothing, but when brought into the chorus of God's work, it is gathered up and brought to bear in the larger scheme of putting the world, and our own hearts, back to rights.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

The parable of Lazarus and the "rich man" is one of the more disturbing passages of our sacred scriptures, especially when viewed as a simple story about the rich getting punished and the poor being rewarded in the life to come. In reality the parable tells the story of two poor men; one who longed to be fed and one who clung to his world of self-sufficiency. In death, both were exposed as naked before God but only one was willing to acknowledge it. His failure to acknowledge his emptiness kept him locked out of communion with God and the saints. In this parable, Jesus provokes us to see that underneath appearances, our lives are lived in total dependence on the graciousness of God but if we refuse to say "yes" to the gift, trusting instead in our own power, we may find ourselves stranded between somewhere we don't want to be and somewhere we refuse to enter. The ultimate question in this parable, as in all of Jesus' parables, is 'how does this story help us to be "on hand" for that which is "at hand" but not "in hand?"' In this sermon, Jonathan suggests that there are two things needed: 1) a revelation from God and, 2) a concrete response, even if it's as small as a mustard seed (or onion - IYKYK), that creates a crack in which the light of God's new world can shine in.