St Margaret's Church Prestwich

Rev Helen preached this sermon on Sunday 19 November 2023. Here it is for you to reflect on again:

Don’t you love it when the bible is nice, clear, precise about its teachings and what God wants of those who follow the way. Never contradicts itself or gives mixed messages. Yet at first glance todays three reading all seem to give different advice on the best way to receive grace from God, so which one is right. Next Sunday is the celebration of Christ the King, the last Sunday in the church year when we think about the eternal kingdom of God and Jesus enthroned as king looking out for all his children and for those who fall short? well you read the first half of  Revelation it not pleasant and something we want clear instruction on avoiding. So where do we find that? Let’s have a look at the three readings today and see if we can make sense of them.

We have a reading from the Book of Zephaniah and it doesn’t sound too pleasant does it? All that wrath is something that everyone would want to avoid, but what has been the cause of this wrath? The passage speaks of having excessive wealth, having plundered and taken away things that don’t belong to you or living in excess. It doesn’t impress God and it won’t help you survive that judgement that’s coming. As we hear many times, you can’t take it with you, so put it to good use while we’re on earth. Wealth might hold sway while we’re on earth but won’t do anything once we’re stood before Jesus giving an account of ourselves.

Next we have an extract from the letter to the Thessalonians, again looking to get ready for the end times and what does this say that we need to prepare. We need to believe and trust in Jesus, have faith in him and we’ll be saved, as it says in the passage The awake or asleep can live in him’, we’re justified by faith and this is what will count. The principle that so inspired Martin Luther and the stand he made against the Roman Church. Sola Fide and Sola Scripture faith and scripture alone are what are needed to be saved.

So we have faith, belief and an absence of material possessions and gain are what are needed to gain favour. Then we have the gospel, Jesus teaches through another parable which seems to throw all of this into the air. A Parable called by many the parable of the talents and it contradicts a lot of this. There are three servants one is given five talents, one is given three talents and the final one. While the master is away the one with five doubles his number to 10, the second to six and the final one buries his in the ground in fear of losing it. Who gets the reward in this story and who doesn’t? The ones who gain and double what they have are rewarded and the one who has faith and hope for the masters mercy is punished. So do you need to earn wealth to gain Gods favour? We live in a society where the rich are getting richer and the poor get poorer where wealth and materialistic goods are the sign of status which seems to be encouraged by this parable if you take it at face value we need to rely on wealth to get into heaven and showing God how we have gained? Which just doesn’t add up when you look at other parables Jesus tells like the Rich Man and Lazarus and the Rich Fool this seems doubtful and Jesus does tell on rich man it is harder for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than it is for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. What’s going on here? Is it more about relying just on faith without action?

Can we just put everything down to faith? That is we pray and trust in God through blind faith and we will get what we ask for? No it can’t be sometimes action or works are needed, faith and prayer can only take us so far. It’s like the story of the man who heard on the news there was going to be a river burst that would flood his street. A landrover came to take him to safety but he said I will pray and God will save me, the water burst and the man was trapped upstairs a boat came to rescue him but he said I will pray to God and God will save me, eventually he had to climb onto the roof and a helicopter came but he said I will pray for God to save him. The man died and when he was before God he asked, why didn’t you answer my prayers and save me? God replied I sent a news report, a landrover, a boat and a helicopter. What more did you want? Sometimes more is needed than just faith.

So could we come to the conclusion that all three passages are right and actually we need to do a bit of all, we need to have faith, belief and pray but also to do good work to continue and proclaim the way of the kingdom and be good Christians. Is that the way to prepare for the day we give account of ourselves to Jesus. See the gain of talents not as money but as something else.

Next week we celebrate Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church year when Jesus will look for those who have received their mark from him and his kingdom. Good works don’t gain complete favour but neither does faith alone, we need to do both as even though we are justified by faith we need to work to proclaim the Kingdom of God and Jesus words and live the way he did. Just before Jesus left he told his disciples to go all over the world and tell of him and what he said. That is what we continue to do today, action inspired by faith and belief in Jesus. As Jesus said to Thomas ‘Do you believe in me because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet still believe’ Jesus message to all those who still follow him nearly 2,000 words after he gave it. Keep telling of me and do actions inspired by me teachings for all those who have not seen him so that they may know him.

So what do we do when the bible seems to contradict itself or giving mixed messages. It doesn’t mean disregard it but we do sometimes have to really dig down and to really see what it is saying and look around the scripture and other authorities in the church for clarification. However we know the overarching message from Jesus is to have faith in him and he will come through for us so we can reside with him on the last day. We act as he told us to act, treat others as he treated them and keep proclaiming his kingdom until he returns, just like he told us to! Amen