Last Sunday morning brought to a close a two year long pattern of sermons. In that time we have had five sermon series, interspersed with others at times, each focussed on one of our church values. Loving God, Loving Each Other, Loving Our Neighbours, Exploring, and Celebrating. Last week was the last of the services looking at the last of these values – because we value celebrating, we appreciate each other.
We have spent so long on them, exploring them in some detail, because we know that culture – the way that we do things, communicates far more about who we are and why we do what we do than the plans we make. Over the last two years most of our plans have fallen by the way side, have ended up in tatters, but our commitment to our values – the way we do things – has meant that we have continued to love God, love each other, love our neighbours, explore, and celebrate, and so have continued to come closer to Christ and go to be closer to others, which is what we say that our purpose is.
We are called to be closer to Christ and sent to be Closer to others.
Now that we’ve finished this two year exploration of these values, it doesn’t mean that we will assume we’ve got them sorted, or that we can forget about them. They continue to underpin who we are as a church, inform how we do things, and we are responsible to each other for living them out, and gently keeping each other accountable to them.
One of the Bible readings I’d chosen for last week related the story of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany, an account that inspired one of our vision images here at All Saints, in which we see a Christ centred church of faithful service, intimate worship, and friendship with God.
Last week, after I’d spoken about how we show that we value celebrating by the appreciation that we show each other, Sue Pointon shared that she had a sense that God was looking on us in appreciation and reassuring us that he loves us. We spent some time soaking in that sense of God’s love and appreciation washing over us. After the service, Rose Kershaw came over to me and shared that she had seen a picture as we worshipped,
“There was a great crowd of people standing with their heads bowed and Jesus was elevated above holding his hands out and tears falling down on his people, like a gentle river washing over them. Jesus was saying to them. I know how difficult it has been these last few years, I can feel your pain and have been listening to your prayers. It was like Jesus was filling his people with the Holy Spirit so they can be refreshed and continue on their journey.”
And so, it seems to me like God was setting the scene, encouraging us to draw closer, and it’s almost like the Holy Spirit has been at work in our planning, as over the coming months we have opportunities to respond to that call to come closer and be filled as we explore what it means to be intimate with the ultimate.
Many of us long for intimacy, to know and be fully known. And yet at the same time we fear it. We fear rejection, once people find out what we’re really like. We fear that we’re not worth getting to know. We fear getting hurt if we make ourselves vulnerable. Intimacy is risky.
And yet, it is what we are invited to.
The thing is, there is nothing about ourselves that God doesn’t already know. If we think that by avoiding intimacy with God that we are able to keep things from him, then we are deluding ourselves. In the first book of the Bible, we read of the close relationship that God had with people – God walked with them in the garden, they were naked before God, but felt no shame or fear. We enjoyed fearless intimacy with God.
And then, we decided that we knew best, that we knew better than God, and we wanted knowledge, so we disobeyed the one command we were given. And what was the first effect of that disobedience? We were ashamed, and tried to cover our nakedness and hid from God when he came walking in the garden. God called out to us and we were afraid and ashamed. Our guilt and shame disrupted that fearless intimacy and a chasm opened up between us and our Creator. We were cut off from the source of our life.
But God didn’t leave us there. God sent messenger after messenger, made promise after promise, that if we would only trust God, and walk in the ways we were shown, we could enjoy that intimacy again. We could be free from the shame and the guilt. But we would not, we could not. So God, in Jesus, came to us. How much more intimate can you get than being in a mother’s womb, nurtured there for nine months before coming to birth. God, breaking through all those barriers, sharing created life with us. God, Jesus, one of us, continuing in perfect intimate relationship with Father God.
In the end Jesus was stripped naked and hung on a cross in front of the whole world, so that we could be forgiven, our shame and guilt washed away, and we can be free of any fear of standing naked before God, walking naked with God, just as we are, because we know that we are loved and welcomed. Yes, there are still parts of our lives which need restoring, we’re not yet perfect, there are still areas of our lives in which we defy God and need to repent and be forgiven, but as we open ourselves up to God, the Holy Spirit will show us those, and work in us to sort them out. We do not need to be afraid. There is nothing about us that God doesn’t already know, there is nothing about what we’ve done, or who we are that can stop God loving us. There is nothing to fear.
But, it’s not always easy, unlearning the patterns of life and thought that keep us from intimacy with God. That is why we’re going to spend some time on it, in a variety of different ways over the next few months. We’re going to have some teaching in sermons like this. We’re going to have opportunities to explore different aspects of intimacy with God in our small groups – in discussion and doing exercises together. We all have the opportunity to buy this book, and read it and reflect on it as individuals or in our prayer triplets. Our Ignite services over the next couple of months will be shaped around intimacy with God. And on the first weekend of April Gerard and Chrissie Kelly will be joining us to share, in person, some of their wisdom on this. We’ll have a day together on the Saturday, and they will be speaking in our service on the Sunday.
Our readings this morning were themed around prayer, and the ways in which Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray, and the request from Paul to the Christians in Colossae to pray for him. At our home group this week we had just finished one set of material, and were waiting to start the small group material for Intimate with the Ultimate, so had a spare week. We decided to have a one off session looking at any questions members of the group had. One wrote to me with this question, “Does all prayer need to be structured and well thought out, are there rules to praying ?”
We put a pin in that question, because I’m hoping that as we explore intimacy with God over the coming months we will find the answers to these questions. It seems to me that prayer is conversation with God that flows out of our intimacy with God. Jesus teaches us to pray, “our father…” he uses illustrations based around family life. “If you, who are wicked, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will God give….”
As we go through the coming weeks we will think about walking with Jesus, working with Jesus, and watching Jesus. Walking with someone, working with someone, watching someone – these are all things that we do that can build relationship, that are opportunities for intimacy to deepen. Prayer is the conversation that happens while we do these things. As we walk with Jesus, we discover prayer that is relational and rhythmic.
As we work alongside Jesus, our prayer is restless, rich, and reciprocal. As we watch Jesus our prayer becomes both rooted and revolutionary.
So, I’m looking forward to what God has for us over the coming weeks. I believe that he is inviting us, as individuals and as a church, to a relationship of deeper intimacy with him. Part of this will be opening up to God, and probably to each other. That might feel risky, but I believe that as we step out in faith, we will discover that we are held more securely by one who loves us more deeply than we can ever imagine, our ultimate Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
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