Welcome To The Untidy World Of A Living Faith!

MARK 7:24-37

I’ve been very restrained since I’ve been back off holiday – in that I have scarcely acknowledged the great triumph of the England Cricket Team in regaining the ashes. Indeed things looked so bad during the fourth test at Headingly that I remember remarking that if England won the ashes from here, I’d preach a sermon with my Freddie Flintoff mask on!  ) Hiya! Now I’m retired, I thought I’d be Fr Freddie!) – but I don’t want to scare the baby.

In an article in The Times – Mike Atherton, the former England captain wrote about visiting the two dressing rooms at The Oval early in the morning after the great victory. Both were deserted.

The Australian dressing room was tidy and clean and very quiet. All the equipment was packed away in cases and everything was neatly labelled and staked up. The floor had been swept. It was as if nobody had ever been there.

The England dressing room was in contrast a complete mess. No one had taken their kit home, it was spilling all over the floor, plates of sandwiches and empty bottles scattered everywhere, streamers and flags draped from the ceiling. Congratulatory telegrams, cards and silly hats all over the place. It was like a celebration still in full swing.

And Atherton contrasted the orderliness that characterises defeat, with the chaos that accompanies victory. That struck me as being as true in matters of faith as it is in great moments of sport.

Jesus’ main opponents were the Pharisees and they had a right place for everything. They were meticulous. They believed that under the law – everything could be tidied away – and if you could not conform – then out you’d go. They did not realise it but their whole attitude characterised defeat.

This was why they hated Jesus so much. His chaotic ministry was an affront to them. Turning things upside down, making the first last and the last first. That was simply not in the rule book.

Today’s two Gospel headline makers are cases in point. The first person had two things wrong with her before she even opened her mouth. She was a woman and she was a Greek. All very questionable. Don’t  touch her, don’t even listen to her – says the tidy, law bound mind, but Jesus meets her need, healing happens and the balloon goes up big time!

And only Jesus would turn to a man who could neither hear or speak and make of him a herald of the Good News of the kingdom. It’s astounding stuff.

So welcome Joshua David. Welcome to the victory party that goes on forever in the church you are now joining. It’s like an England dressing room in here – because the victory Jesus gives us through his death and resurrection takes a lifetime of sorting out. It try as we might, it wil not be tidied away.

I think you’re away to fine start simply with the names Matt and Angie have given you.

Joshua was the man who lived most of his life in the shadow of the great leader Moses. You’d have expected it to have been Moses who led the people into the Promised Land – but it was your namesake who did that. Led them to victory and beyond the victory the chaos of things in the land flowing with milk and honey – not being quite as expected.

David was the youngest of brothers and when they came looking for warriors, when they came looking for a likely king, your namesake was not in the running, completely ignored by those who thought God worked with a tidy mind. But then,  plucked from obscurity again to achieve great victories – but beyond the victories chaos, difficulty and heartbreak.

 I pray and we all pray, that Joshua David, you may live up to your name and may find yourself well at home in the character of the England dressing room.

And the rest of us? Think of those contrasting dressing rooms the morning after the ashes. Think of the many ways God touches the life of his people in ways that seem topsy turvey. Think of the chaotic way the church continues to take shape through the two thousand years since the resurrection –, we’re a part of that chaos and you have to hold your nerve to want to carry on – but its where the victory lies – and if you believe it then let your voices ring out with the parents and godparents of Joshua David as like the Greek woman and the man who could not hear or talk,as we make a complete exhibition of ourselves by turning to Christ.

RH 6.9.09