Posts Tagged ‘truth’
Posted on February 21, 2010 - by Tim L
Lent 1 - Direction
If you make a journey what counts as travel essentials?
I dare say each one of us would answer in a different way. You might even have a list that you keep on a computer or on a piece of paper that you get out before you go on holiday. You might not be that organised and just gather it all together in the last half hour as it comes into your head.
What would you take on a journey with you?
Many of us would day we are on a journey, one that is more spiritual in nature, but it has some very earthy impact. What are the travel essentials for that journey?
What do you need to put in the rucksack to carry with you?
Discussion - Where are you?
There is a sort of map here on the screen for you to look at - Where are you? Where does it feel like you are at this season of your life?
Turn and talk to someone about where you are
“Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
Follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
Follow the Yellow Brick, Follow the Yellow Brick,
Follow the Yellow Brick Road.”
Sang by Dorothy in the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz.
Do you know where you going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you?
From the classic song by Diana Ross that was a massive hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
“You’re packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen.”
Bono in the clip you have just seen called Walk on. How can you pack for somewhere none of us have been to?
The recent TV series hit from the USA called Lost has featured a group who survived a plane crash on a desert island
Lostness, or a lack of direction is as old as what it is to be human.
Do you know where you’re going to?
Do you know what it is like to be lost?
Have you ever been completely lost?
Have you ever had the map in your hand but have still no idea where you are?
“Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”
Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”
Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”
John 14:1-7 (The Message)
Now we have to set the passage in it’s context. Jesus is in Jerusalem with his Disciples at the time of the biggest festival in the Jewish calendar - the Passover. Jesus has told the Disciples he is going to die, he has washed their feet as an act of service, he has told them of his betrayal and has now told them they will all desert him. The Disciples cannot follow the way he is going right now but the time will come when they will. Peter has said he will do anything for Jesus, even die for him.
Then, in the midst of all this bad news, all this gloom, all this turmoil Jesus asks them to trust him and in His Father.
Jesus knows where he is going but he also knows where the Disciples are going and there is plenty of room. Jesus will get things ready and he will be back for them. Trust me.
And then Thomas comes up with this wonderful question, “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way” Sound familiar, Sounds like lostness or a lack of direction. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way” A child to a parent, a passenger to a driver, a friend to another friend, a student to a teacher, anyone to God,
I am not sure where you put yourself on the jelly baby map. Maybe you are on a high, maybe in the depths, struggling to keep afloat, maybe you don’t know,
Jesus says to Thomas and the Disciples I am The Road, The Truth and The Life.
Jesus being The Road or the Way - Difficult concept to get you head around. Jesus says he is the way, but how does that work, what does that mean?
The way the truth and the life has often been used as a doctrinal statement of who is in and who is out, but what happens if this statement by Jesus is an invitation.
It is an invitation to walk. An invitation to walk with Jesus. It is when we walk with Jesus that we are on the Road, we are on the way.
Dorothy followed the yellow brick road with her companions, the way was yellow and easy to see. I think Bono might have been more right that it might possibly have first seemed.
“You’re packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen.”
That does not make it easy unless you put in the context of joining with Jesus on the journey he is making.
If you are lost who do you trust for direction?
Try Jesus, join him on his Road, on his Way.
Posted on September 7, 2009 - by Tim L
Luke 1&2
How many of you have read the newspaper today?
How many of you have surfed on the internet for the news or some info?
Who has watched the TV at some stage today?
Have you played on a game? On a play station?
How do you know the difference between the 2. One of them is fact the other fiction. Or is it?
Sometimes you can read a newspaper report and wonder if it is true of if it fiction. Newspapers are often sued by celebrities because the stories they report are nothing more than that. They are stories, reported as fact but have nothing to do with truth or events that actually took place in history.
Have you listened to two children telling the events of the past 20 minutes before they arrived in the lounge shouting at each other and demanding you sort out the argument.
Who do you believe? Who is telling the truth?
Who can give you an account of what has actually happened?
Like it or not but we make judgments calls all of the time about what we believe to be true, from the news, newspapers, Play stations, children, partners, work colleagues,
And so we come to the first 4 verses of Luke’s gospel. Not sure how many of you have read Luke 1 & 2 this week. Let’s have a look.
1So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, 2using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. 3Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, 4so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught.
Luke 1;1-4 (The Message)
It is not often that we get the chance to read a whole gospel. The danger with dotting around is that you never get the chance to look at some the bits that are not so popular. A lot of people will have read or heard of the Good Samaritan, the Christmas story or the Prodigal Son.
Here we have the reasons as to why Luke was writing the Gospel. Because of the world we now live in we have to ask the question is this trustworthy?
Are the events that are recorded here to be trusted? Are they based in history or is this one of those celebrity newspapers stories?
When you ask the general population about Christianity then one of the top the questions or queries that they have will be to do with the bible and whether it can be trusted.
Some will have conspiracy theories about how it all came about. I was reading one today in the Sunday Times. The author Philip Pullman was arguing that Christianity is an invention of Paul the Apostle and has very little to do with the man Luke writes about called Jesus.
What comes into play for some people is that they can read the words on the page so far and then something happens or is said you are back again with the whole question of whether this is true or not. There would be many folks who can happily accept that there are angels. But it gets a little more difficult in Luke 2 when an angel tells a young 13 year old woman that she will have a virgin birth. May be you might be OK with that, but most will start to struggle when according to Luke it does happen!
See what I mean. So how do we read the texts, how do we approach them?
I think we need to come to them with an attitude of “faith seeking understanding.” Don’t get me wrong I am not talking about blind faith and acceptance on the one hand and wholesale skepticism on the other. Start out from a position of trust, trust the writers of the texts. In this case trust Luke
To support this attitude I would like to draw your attention to a number of points;
Luke is trying to write accurately - why would he say he has done some research and then fabricate the results.
Luke uses the testimony of eyewitnesses and we have to remember that was far more accurate in those days because it was the only way they had of passing on info. There were no cameras, TV crews, camcorders, etc. Even writing it down was a rarity, it was one of the things that makes the Gospels so special - someone had to have the time and money to write them down.
When you read the whole of Luke’s gospel it is by no means perfect. If it was a put up job why are there mistakes in it?
Luke wants to what actually report what happened - the truth.
For discussion
Do you trust Luke?
If you do why do you?
If not why not?
Does it leave you with any questions
I read Luke 1 & 2 last week and there were a several things that struck me. It helped because I was reading it out of its usual context in the run up to Christmas. Sometimes in church when we read the Christmas story we seem to end up with this very sanitised read of the story and it looses impact.
- What struck me was the ordinariness of the everyday lives of the folks concerned. Now I know that to us it might not seem that ordinary, for starters not many of us make use of Temples, or are priests, but on the other hand we seem to have a whole bunch of people who are going about doing the ordinary things of their lives. There are people going about their jobs, some are dealing with real life issues and whatever life has thrown at them, some are fulfilling their religious duties, others are writing poetry and reflecting on what life has thrown at them. Luke records the ordinary.
- Secondly I noticed how God acts. Yes, there are miraculous events, angels do appear in what seem to be surprisingly large numbers, but it is in the ordinariness that God chooses to act. God is at work in the world. Is he today? Does he continue to act in the ordinary?
- And finally,….the response of the people.
Some disbelieve what God is doing. Luke particularly likes to portray the supposedly religious people as those who struggle to accept what God is doing. Others accept what God is doing all too readily. His actions bring about their hearts desire and they sing their praises to God for his blessing. Others are interrupted and asked to wonder and reflect on what God might be doing.
Which one are you?
Does God continue to act in the ordinary?
What is your response to him?