Christianity & Sport. Radley College Chapel Feb 08

It was the night before final team selection. I had been training with the Oxford University boat club for four months. We had started a month before the beginning of term and since then we had trained six hours a day, six days a week, every week. Early morning training on six out of seven days meant signing away any semblance of a social life, and all this for the sake of rowing success.
I had always made the team at school and rather fancied myself as a rower, but now I wasn’t so sure. Tomorrow was the final cut, and I was one of the four under the knife. For the two that didn’t make it, that would be the end. No consolation prize, no reserves team, just a quick word from the coach and then they wouldn’t be seen again. The atmosphere during training had a bitter edge, there was a little polite conversation, but you could see that inside everyone was nervous: the next days’ results would decide the success of their year, even of their time at Oxford.
From then on, how would they answer the question, “How’s the rowing?”? Would it be, “Great I made the team” or would they have to mumble out “I got dropped, I wasn’t good enough”?
For many, success in this world decides whether they feel accepted. And so everyone wants to be an achiever so that they will be accepted by be it by their teachers, their friends, their, parents, even by themselves. I wonder is that you as well? That was certainly how I worked. Everything, and everyone around me told me that life was about achievement, and if I wanted to be accepted I needed to be an achiever.

But over the course of my time at school I became a disciple of Jesus, and so when I sat on my bed that December, on the last night before team selection, as a follower of Jesus, I was able to open up this psalm and read with confidence, “O God you are my God, “. I cannot tell you what a joy it is to be able to speak those words and really mean them. You see for most in the rowing team, rowing success is their god, for others academic success is their god, or image, or relationships. The whole world around us tells us that life is all about GCSEs, sports teams, then A levels, University, degree, a massive salary, a nice big house, a beautiful wife or husband. The world tells us those are the goals of life. That is what really matters.
Sure, it’s good to give your all but achievement is a terrible thing to worship What if everyone thinks quicker than I do? What if they remembers more than me? Run faster? Make more money? Have a bigger house? are better at music? more popular? Looks better?. What if I’m never going to achieve?
The wondrous news for the followers of Jesus, however, is that achievement and acceptance by others just doesn’t need to be a worry, I don’t need to live with those goals. I knew that December evening that I need not worry about whether I get into the first team or the second team or even if I get dropped altogether. I don’t need to worry about acceptance by others. You see that’s not what life is all about.
You see, I can say boldly that I have been accepted by God, and that my ultimate goal is not boat race success, nor success in all my exams, nor getting on the rich list, or any other achievement, but my ultimate goal is heaven, eternity with God, where there will be no tears, no death, no mourning and no pain. And because of his amazing loving kindness, God takes me as I am, full of pride, hate, bitterness and godlessness, rowing blue or not. I can say that boldly not because of anything I have achieved, but because of what Jesus Christ achieved, dying on the cross to take the punishment for my sin. I can look forward to everlasting life, because God, the merciful, loving God of the universe, is my God. I pray that the same may be true for you.

Shell 5 version of Thine be the Glory

May the praise be yours immortal victorious Lord

your winning battle over mortality is unstoppable

godly people in colourful robes moved the rock aside

left Jesus' bandages where he must have slept

Don't worry about a thing,

cause death will never overcome our Lord

Oh the saviour comes to us, resurrected from his death bed

Kindly he sees us spreads fright and death

Let the chapel with happiness songs of winning proclaim

and now Jesus is alive, life is still better than dying

We do believe you now, wonderful Son of God.

There is no point in living in your absence, help us in our weakness

Let us rise above the risen, using your eternal forgiveness and love

Guard us on our journey to your sacred place above

Holiness:: Radley Chapel 24.02.08

Text: 1 Pet 1:13-16

Present Cheese to unsuspecting first year.

"what is this?"

“what adjectives could you use to describe it?”

"what are these? (holes)"
What adjective would you use to describe it therefore ("holy")
I'll give you a clue this is a characteristic which according to popular
opinion this cheese probably shares with the pope.
That was, I admit, a painfully cheesy joke, but at least I have your
attention.

I want to talk to you about holiness.

In the desert after they had escaped from Egypt, God told his people the following:

he said, “Be holy, because I am holy”. Be holy, because I am holy

Now there is a problem. Whilst I hope only a limited number still think I am talking about cheese, many, I would suggest, are nevertheless confused about holiness. You see, I think holiness, just like Britney Spears, gets a bad press. We are going to conduct a quick social experiment in chapel to see if that is true here.

I would like everyone to think of someone, one person in particular, who they think is holy. You have 10 seconds to think of someone holy.

Now, in order to conduct my quick social experiment, I need everyone to raise their right hand in the air.

Put your hand down, if the person you thought of was the pope.Now put your hand down, if the person you thought of was over 25 years of age.

So that’s pretty bad news. Basically no one here thinks of young people when they think of ‘holy’ people, and a whole load of you think immediately of the pope – who indeed seems very holy, but he’s not exactly an easy role model to relate to. But God said to all his people Be Holy. And that includes people like you and me under 25.

To clear up the confusion, let me tell you what holiness is not:

It is not religiosity,It is not being dreadfully solemn

It is not being boring, It is not wearing white robes, holding your hands constantly pressed together in the prayer position and taking ridiculously small steps so that it looks like you’re actually floating along, Holiness is not being old. It is not being ‘holier than thou’, you know, one of those people who walks around looking down on everyone else telling them with every glance how desperately immoral they are. It is not reserved for monks, nuns, vicars, popes nor indeed for cheeses.

Holiness means simply this:

It means being set apart. holiness means being set apart.

In fact, pretty much every one of you is wearing an illustration for me. We’re all in our Sunday suits. That’s one piece of clothing that’s set apart from the rest. It’s different and it stands out.

So being holy means just the same. It means being set apart. It means being different. Standing out from the crowd.

And holiness is what God wants. He said to his people “Be Holy, because I am Holy”

But, JFA, I hear the Radleian remonstrate. Why are you telling a bunch of adolescents to stand out from the crowd. If that’s what holiness is all about what kind of public school boy would be interested. I spend my life trying to fit in, trying to wear the right piece of clothing, say the right thing, not say the wrong thing, listen to the music that’s makes me cool, and go to the same holiday destination as everyone else. My life is about blending in, not standing out.

I’m a teenager, man, why do I want to be ‘holy’, ‘set apart’, that's social suicide?

In many ways, no one likes to stand out, to be different.

And you know, I’m pretty sure that’s why many people don’t want to follow Jesus. They associate Jesus with all sorts of weird things. They think becoming a follower of Jesus, becoming holy is going to mean obligatory sandal and white sock wearing. They think it means being boring, and having no fun. And quite frankly if that’s the kind of holiness God is suggesting I wouldn’t be interested either.

But being holy is more than just being different for the sake of it, it’s certainly not about being odd. Holiness means being set apart, yes but it means set apart for a special purpose. In fact just like your Sunday suit. It’s different but in a good way. It’s smarter than everything else in the wardrobe. It has a special purpose.

God said to his people “Be holy, because I am holy”. In other words, be set apart, be different, yes, but for a special purpose. That special purpose is to be like him, like God. Be holy, because I am holy.

Sure we often don’t like to stand out. But standing out for something special is everyone’s dream. Imagine your name gets read out by the warden in warden’s assembly for successfully getting into Oxford or Cambridge. You’re standing out for a special purpose. There’s no shame in that. And so it is with those who want to follow Jesus. God calls us to stand out for a special purpose, namely to be like him. What nobler purpose could there be than that?

To see what that looks like, we only need to look at Jesus. He was totally different from all those around him. In a culture of retribution he said love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. To those who treat sex casually he said sex is sacred and should be kept within marriage. To those who think money is all we need, he said that love of money is likely to exclude us from his kingdom. Finally, for all those who rejected him, scorned and mocked him in life, he, God’s chosen King, went to die on a cruel Roman cross so that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. That is the kind of special purpose Jesus proposes for his followers.

Let me give you a few more recent examples of radically different Christian living.

Jackie Pullinger is a remarkable Christian lady, with an upbringing perhaps not too dissimilar to ours. She had a vision in which she felt God was calling her to help those in the walled city of Hongkong. Against all the advice of those around her she left with little money and only a single ticket. Hongkong was nothing like the wealthy metropolis it is now. A part of the town, the walled city, was effectively out of police jurisdiction and ruled by the triad gangs. There were enormous problems of Heroine addiction and prostitution. When she arrived she got a job as a primary school teacher and started a youth club for the local kids. She earnt very little money and was in constant danger. Some of the Triad gang members came to her youth club. As many accepted Jesus, they found that he set them free from their addictions. The work has continued to grow in scope to this day. Jesus reached out to people with the Good news of forgiveness and a relationship with God. Jackie did the same.

That is a holy life, a life set apart for a special purpose, God’s purpose. Wouldn’t it be great if the world had more holy people like that?

Or take William Wilberforce. Brought up in the second half of the 18^th century in a privileged family in the North and educated at Cambridge. He lived in at a time where slavery was still upheld as morally acceptable, but when he began to follow Jesus, he became convicted that he should use his political power to fight it. After his conversion he channeled every part of his energies into campaigning for the abolition of slavery, which indeed he did see through.

He certainly stood out, indeed was ridiculed by some. Just like Jesus he believed all men had equal value irrespective of their race or upbringing. He was a holy man, living with the priorities of God, not of man.

Finally, an example closer to home. When I was thirteen and had just started public school, I went to the equivalent of Christian forum. A chap called Henry in the lower Sixth came up to me, welcomed me, asked my name and generally set me at ease.

I couldn’t believe it. You didn’t do that. You never talked with lower years, it would undermine your status. Where would your respect be. But this one boy decided that it was better to stand out, and obey God’s command to love his neighbour, than to follow the crowd. That is holiness too.

Who could say, whether Christian or not, that we wouldn’t be better off with more Holy people. More people who have set their lives apart for a special purpose: to love the outcast, campaign for justice, welcome strangers?

In each case they obeyed the call to “be holy, because I am holy”. I wonder what purpose you have determined for your life at the moment. It might be Olympic athlete, property magnate, banker, or simply a comfortable existence with a nice car and a nice house.God says “be holy, because I am holy”. I wonder, will your life stand out?

Talk to Saygo (st. andrew's youth group) 2 Timothy 2:1ff

Do you ever wonder, “what’s the purpose of it all?”. Do you ever question, “why on earth am I actually here?”

SLIDE This happened to me not so long ago as I was in a couple of feet of water. I was in Scotland and it was my first ever fishing experience. I was salmon fishing on one of the best stretches of river the British isles have to offer, at enormous expense to my incredibly generous father-in-law who had invited us to join him there.

It’s not hard to figure out the point, you say. The point, surely, is to catch salmon, is it not? Well yes and no, you can of course go to waitrose and buy delicious salmon without having to put any waders on, without standing in the shop for 14 hours, without waving your arm rhythmically back and forth for a good part of the day, and without the lottery aspect that you might not actually come home with anything at all. + it costs £2.50 a pop rather than about £100.
Now that fact does demonstrate the excessive simplicity of an answer like “catching salmon is the point of salmon fishing”.

I wonder do you ever get a similar confusion when it comes to bigger questions of life, and faith. Perhaps you’ve come to saygo with exactly that question. You’re not sure what you believe in, and you’re wanting to find out. What does Christianity say is the purpose of life? What is my purpose? What am I meant to be doing while I’m here on this earth? Those are fantastic questions, and I hope today you’ll get a little closer to answering them. Then again, perhaps you’re from a Christian family, or you’ve been coming to saygo for a while. You’re pretty sure you believe, but you still, feel, like me with the fishing, you don’t quite get it. You can see people around you, even people your own age, at saygo perhaps, just like mustard keen fishermen, who are so involved, they’ve got such a clear sense of purpose in their faith, they’re living all out for Jesus, but you can’t really see why you should want to do the same. You wonder, what is it that they see, and I don’t, which means they’re so keen, but I’m not really.
Perhaps you believe in Jesus, but instead of energising you, giving you a reason to live, you find that your beliefs are just a bit of a drag really. You come to saygo because you feel you should or because it keeps your parents happy, or because your friends are here, but to be honest you often catch yourself thinking “what is actually the purpose of being Christian?”, “what difference does it actually make?”, “I believe, but so what?”. “Why am I even here?”
I hope this evening you’ll hear some answers.

SLIDE
Let’s read verse one of chapter two. 1 Timothy is a letter written by the apostle Paul to his rather timid disciple Timothy as a spiritual encouragement and a guide to what he should be doing with his life as a Christian. What he writes to young Timothy he could easily have written to us.
“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus”. x2

Young timothy may have felt like a bit of a spiritual weakling, as indeed we might, but God says “be strong”. Take your spiritual spinach. Or the way I would like to put it is “plug in to the grace of God”. Get connected to the grace of God so that it powers you up. We need some electricity to get our spiritual lives going – look at verse 1, “you and I need to be “strong””. How? verse 1 again “In the grace that is in Christ Jesus”. – we need to crank up some strength by hooking ourselves up to the ultimate power source - God’s grace SLIDE in Jesus Christ.
It’s like a lamp. Look at this lamp. A lovely piece given to us for our wedding. Beautifully crafted with a smoothed, swirling engraved wooden stand, natty lamp shade and velvet base to avoid scratching the table I put it on. Lovely.
But, let’s be honest, fundamentally pretty useless on its own. That is, until you plug it in. If you want this bad boy to it’s job you’ve got to plug it in. And when you do, boy it’s a beauty.
It’s the same with you and me. Ok we’re a bit different on the outside, I’m pretty ugly you’re all quite good-looking put by God’s standards, none of us is really any good at all if we’re not plugged in to his Grace. If we are to do our job properly, to fulfil our God given purpose we need to be strong or plugged in to the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

So what is Grace, and how can we plug in to it?

A good way of remembering what Grace means is this acronym SLIDE God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.
When we speak about Grace we mean all the wonderful things that we do not deserve, but God gives them to us, because Jesus Christ got hold of them for us in exchange for his life. God’s Riches At Christ’s expense.

It’s like this. God created the world, and put us in charge to rule over it and live off it. He gave us his laws to obey, and to show us how to relate to him, the one who thought up every cell in our bodies and every word on our tongue before we were even born.
But we don’t like that. You only need to watch a five year old being told to eat brocolli to realise that disobedience is our standard response to rules. We hate the idea that someone else should call the shots, and so we love to hate God and his laws. [SLIDES] We lie, we cheat, we show favouritism, we hate, we kill, we gossip, we manipulate, we ignore men and women, we are greedy, blind to our mistakes, quick to criticise another, impatient, obstinate, unfaithful, intolerant, foolish, full of sexual lusts, perverted, superficial, but above all proud, self-promoting, and self obsessed. SLIDE From our point of view we consider there is only one ultimate reality in life – that’s me, not God. There is only one King in our lives, that’s me not God. There is only one rule in my life,SLIDE mine, not God’s.
All that is what the Bible calls sin.
And it has consequences. Just like when you get £5.50 per hour in wages for stacking shelves at Sainsburys, the wages we get for sin is death. That’s what the Bible says. And after death, because God is just, we are destined to suffer eternal punishment in hell.
I find it hard talking about this, and if you’re anything like me, it’s hard listening to it. But that doesn’t change anything, does it? If I’m drowning in quicksand and you say to me “you’re drowning in quicksand”, and I say “that’s a bit harsh isn’t it, I don’t like that idea”, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m drowning in quicksand.
It’s tough to take, but the bible says we deserve to go to hell.SLIDE x 4

And this is God’s grace:
Just imagine a mass of billions upon billions standing with their back to God each wearing the crown of his life on his own head. there’s me … God says “despite what each of these has done, I love them so much I want them to live and not to suffer that punishment which they fully deserve.” So he puts into action the biggest rescue mission of history. He parachutes down himself in human form, Jesus Christ God the son, & lives a perfect life, and although he is completely clean from sin, SLIDE God the son gets up onto a cruel cross to bear the wrath, the anger of God the Father which was originally intended for us. And now each one of that massive crowd can turn back to God without fear of recrimination.

That is Grace.

And God commands us to be strong in that Grace. SLIDE To plug in to it. Plugging in to the Grace of God, just means knowing it. We need to know God’s grace. We need to know it deeply, in our minds and in our hearts.
So may I ask you, “Do you know the Grace of God?”
Have you ever known the wonder of complete forgiveness for all your sins, past present and future?
Have you ever looked in your mind’s eye at Jesus hanging on the cross, and thought, “he did it for me!”?
Can you say confidently, without hesitation, that despite your wrong doing you know you will not go to hell because you know Jesus has freed you personally from sin?
Are you SLIDE plugged in?

Perhaps you have, well, fantastic you’re plugged in, keep learning about Jesus, and you’ll be stronger and stronger with each day.
Or perhaps you were once plugged in but you feel like you’re not any longer. You’ve lost interest: to be honest Jesus doesn’t mean much to you at the moment. You could wake up tomorrow and find out he’s not there anyway, and it wouldn’t really make much of a difference to your life.
Perhaps you’ve never know this Grace properly. In fact this whole supposedly live-giving thing is a mystery to you. it seems completely new.
Keep coming here to saygo, find out more about this remarkable man Jesus, join a discussion group, ask Christian friends some questions, or pray. If you are one who feels like this you could even speak to one of the Christian staff after this. It’s hard to look at Jesus very long and not be gripped by his grace.
It might be that there is one other type of person here. You’ve understood understood what it means that Jesus died, but it’s not personal yet. You know Jesus died for all sinners, but you don’t yet rejoice to know that Jesus died for all sinners and that includes me! All you need do is ask God that you would benefit from that grace. Just pray to him and ask him. If that’s you, it would be a great idea to tell a friend or a leader so that they could pray with you.

That’s purpose 1. Don’t worry no.s 2 and 3 will be a lot quicker.

Look at verse 2 again,
entrust what you heard me say1 in the presence of many others as witnesses2 to faithful people3 who will be competent4 to teach others as well

Paul says to Timothy, that now that he’s plugged in to the Gospel, “what you heard me say” he needs to pass it on to faithful people who in turn will teach others as well. He’s saying Timothy needs to pass on the news about the Grace we just heard of.
If we think of it in terms of my lamp. Plug in, and then shine brightly. When you plug in and power up a lamp, it’s not just plugged in for its own benefit, it’s plugged in so that it can give everything around it’s light. It should be the same with us. We should shine brightly as Christians, and the light we shine should be the bright news of Jesus Christ who came to save every man. So we should shine brightly. In fact Jesus once said that a Christian who keeps the news about Jesus to himself is about as good a lamp that keeps all its light to itself.
If we feel we’ve got our head round grace, but we still can’t see why being a Christian should change our lives, we still don’t feel a strong sense of purpose. Here’s one way Jesus will never let us be the same again. This is God’s purpose for you – to shine brightly the message of Grace to your friends family and your community.
How do you do it?
Well, we can start by asking friends to saygo. This is a great place to hear the good news about Jesus. But they’re unlikely to come unless we invite them. In fact, that is God’s purpose for us.Thaddeus story.
Another great place to hear the gospel are the summer camps. That is exactly how I first understood about God’s grace. It was in the summer, when I was 14. How grateful I am that one person took the trouble of inviting me.

Plug in , shine brightly and Finally, a third purpose. Last the course.
Look at verse 3 “endure suffering as a good soldier in Christ”, or verse 10. “endure”. To endure means to last a long time. It’ll be tough being a Christian but God wants us to last until the end. Like a soldier we to stay focused on the battle , like an athlete we are to complete the race, like a farmer, we’re to work hard until the very end of the harvest.
There’s one more thing that’s key to a good lamp. The bulb has got to last. It’s no good if it stays on for while and then pops just as you’re trying to get your contact lens in. Put in the long lasting bulb.
That’s why I’m putting in a long lasting bulb. A bulb that will last the course.
Are you finding it hard to keep going in the Christian life. You’re not the only one, it’s never been easy. But ask the soldier, the athlete, the farmer, is it worth lasting the course? Yes they’ll say, always worth it. Paul’s third purpose for you and me Last the course.
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Plug in, shine brightly, and last course

The Prodigal Son for Radley Confirmation

Harry was just a little more rebellious than your average Radleian. He was a little bit cheekier than the norm in the shell, a little bit more streetwise in the remove, a time when he spent more than the average amount of evening down at the 'stro, and his character continued developing in the same direction from then on. He was deep into the dark tunnel of adolescence by the beginning of the fifths, and stared stubbornly into the middle distance when his French teacher told him he had got 0 out of 20 in his coursework.
In fact that was the year that things really did begin to go badly wrong in Harry's life. He came home at Christmas to his parents house in Chelsea - his mother was at home as usual and his father at work in his chambers - he was a barrister. Both were worried. They had heard from his tutor that he'd had a rocky term. When the reports arrived his Father called him up to his study, something he had only ever done once before when he deliberately hit his sister in the face using his x-box as ball and chain - punishment for her eating his last rolo.
They read through a few reports. It was a sorry tale through and through. Harry remembered a few catch phrases: "with great opportunity comes great responsibility", "It's only because I care for you, that I'm telling you this". but they were the same old, tired, tidy ideas of living life by the rules, thinking of the future, making the most of what he had been given, what he'd heard every single end of term for three years with increasing annoyance.
It was during that conversation that Harry decided he couldn't be bothered with all of this any longer and that he was going to leave home, and school as well, for that matter.
The next morning he looked up flats to rent in Fulham found one and arranged to be there at 12, threw some things into a bag, told his mum he was leaving until further notice and left the house.
His parents didn't hear from him for six months, he refused to answer their calls. He moved again so they wouldn't find out where he lived. He worked as a waiter for a year and then stacking shelves until he was eighteen. In all that time Harry had no contact with and no time for his Dad and his way of life at all, but his Dad was still useful for one thing. His Dad was sitting on Harry's inheritance. After he'd got that from him, he could break off contact forever. His Dad might as well die for all he cared. So One day he arranged to meet up with his Dad at his office and said "Dad, I'm eighteen, I want my share of the inheritance." That meant the flat that they were letting in Notting Hill. His Dad tried to reason with him but it was no use. Within a month the house was on the market, and in two Harry had an extra £200k in his bank account.
As he turned to walk down the steps outside his Dad's office it was as if he was turning not just to leave the place, but to break away from the person too. His back, his eyes, his mouth, and even his mind were turned away from his father and turned only towards his own life from now on.

He set off for Bangkok, Thailand, apparently the Sloane square of the East but without any prying parents, and resolved to live it up. He invited friends out there to stay with him at his own expense. He could be found in the best clubs and bars, buying the most expensive champagne, living the high and wild life with anyone he could find. In fact the wilder the activity the more he wanted to do it. He would pay for the most expensive prostitutes, and when he got bored of that he tried marihuana, and when that wasn't enough he went onto harder drugs, each time pouring the inheritance his father had given him into the bottomless pit of his own pleasure. He came back one morning from an all night full moon party and went to a cash point to get some money. But it was gone. As quickly as his life had changed, his balance had emptied.
He was thrown out of his living quarters, and had no money even to eat. Finally he convinced the local municipality to give him a job clearing up rubbish after the midnight revelers. His pay was just under a pound a day. He wanted to eat the remains of the discarded cold kebabs from the polistyrene boxes strewn across the beach each morning just to save himself from hunger.
After around three months and a particularly cold and wet night under some palm trees on the beach, Harry got to thinking for the first time about home and his parents, probably sitting around a warm fire with mum's carrot cake at that very moment. Suddenly he was overcome with longing to be back there, in the safety and warmth of home. but how could he? He had closed those doors for ever he thought. Effectively, asking for his inheritance so early, he'd wished his father dead, he'd rejected pretty much all that his family had fought for in his education, and all that they stood for. If that wasn't enough, he had squandered all that his loving father had prepared for him in his inheritance. He could never look his father in the face again.
No he couldn't go home. Not as a son. But he just couldn't face carrying on here either. Perhaps he could go back as gardner, just ask his Dad for the minimum wage, keep his head down and live his life out quietly.
In that moment he decided, just as he had so resolutely turned away at the steps of his father’s office, to turn back. He realised his mind had already changed, he no longer wanted the life he had made for himself out there, life without his family, focused only on himself. And so just as his mind had turned back to his family, so he himelf stood up and turned back to go to the city. There he sold his last pair of jeans and paid for half an hour to email home and ask, well, beg for some money for a flight home. Even before he logged off he had a reply from his father. “I’ll be in Bangkok airport tomorrow evening. Meet me there”. He got together his meagre bunch of remaining possessions and headed off to the airport the next day, rehearsing in his mind the words he would say to apologise and ask his Dad to employ him. “I’m sorry Dad, I’ve wronged you, I’ve rebelled against you, in fact I’ve done so much wrong, I’m not worthy to be called your son anymore, please just give me some menial job around the house, I can’t stand this any longer”.
No sooner had he entered the building, his Dad threw his arms around him and as stammered out “I’m sorry Dad, I’ve wronged you, I’ve rebelled against you, in fact I’ve done so much wrong”. But you couldn’t hear the end because his father’s embrace stifled it.
Harry’s father could hardly control himself for the joy of seeing his own son return to him. He calmed himself just long enough to ring his wife and tell her to get all their best friends around, get hold of a marquee, splash out on some top West London catering and get the celebrations going by the time they got home. He shouted ecstaticly down the phone, “Harry’s here, we lost him, darling, but we’ve found him again.”

Perhaps we’re thinking, a nice story a good yarn, particularly good for the real reprobates. But let’s face it we’re not going to run away from home, and we might not get on with our parents perfectly, but we’re certainly not going to ask them for the inheritance early.

But when Jesus told an almost identical story he wasn’t talking about family unity. He was talking about the relationship between man and God.
We may never have asked for the inheritance from the parents, but we’ve certainly all taken what God has given us in creation without so much as a whisper of acknowledgement. We may not have moved out of home, but we’ve certainly made sure we don’t spend too much time in conversation with God our creator. Perhaps we’d never think of turning our backs on our parents, and yet have we not all, so often treated God as if he did not even exist, turning our backs, our eyes, our ears, our minds and our hearts away from him?

We’d perhaps not squander the education our parents gave us like Harry did, but could any of us say that our hands, our lips, our intellects, our time has been consistently devoted to the God who gave them to us? Could we honestly claim that all that he has invested in us we have turned back to him?

Even if our physical reality is very proper and orderly, our spiritual reality is, metaphorically speaking, in Bangkok living the highlife far away from God.

So there we are with Harry I would like us to ask ourselves where we stand in that narrative that I have just related. It might be helpful to consider three stages.
Stage 1 Perhaps we are still in the heady days of independence from God. Just as Harry was, cashing in those cheques for whatever made him happy, completely oblivious to the one who had given him all that he had. If that is where we are, we need to repent. That is one of the three things you will declare on Sunday, “I repent of my sins”. It means change your mind. It’s like the moment that Harry looked around himself on that cold beach and said, this can’t go on, I’ve got it wrong, I need to do a complete u-turn.
So perhaps we need to repent.
Stage 2 Perhaps we identify more closely with Harry after he had changed his mind. Still looking around us, knowing we’re in a mess, knowing even how much better it would be to return to God but not sure what to do next. We’ve repented already, now what? If that is where we are, we need to turn to Christ. That’s another one of the three public statements you’ll make on Sunday. “I turn to Christ”. Just as Harry got up, and turned back towards the city, back towards contact with his father, indeed asked him for forgiveness and restoration, so we should turn to Christ. Despite all our guilt and sin, all that we have done against God, because of Christ’s death on the cross we can be forgiven.
In the parable it’s clearly a no brainer isn’t it. Harry had the option Stay there in the cold eating rotting kebabs or go home. You don’t need to think too long about which one to go for. Harry’s Dad’s part-time gardener had is five million times better than he is, let alone his brother.
It was better even to renounce completely his status as son, to go home as a lowly gardener than to stay in Bangkok, such was the misery. If it’s worth coming back to God even as a servant rather than living for ourselves, how much better would it be to return to him and be welcomed as his son. That’s what he promises. God is not waiting for you to return for him to slap you on the wrist, look you sternly in the eye, and let you in with an ‘alright then, just this once’. Go and sit over there with the naughty ones, and keep quiet. His arms are open wide longing to see you return. As the parable says, he’s longing to put a robe on your shoulders and a ring on your finger. To welcome you. So it’s a sort of soggy apple versus 5 courses in the ritz kind of situation – it’s just a no brainer. You’d go for the ritz, and you’d go for turning to Christ any day. So if that’s us then let’s simply ask the Lord Jesus to save us. Ask God to be part of his family once more. He has promised “ I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Wherever you are, send that spiritual email, pray to God and ask to return. He loves to welcome his children home.

Finally, perhaps you have repented, you’ve turned to Christ, and now you wonder what happens next. Perhaps that is a recent thing. This particular parable doesn’t touch on this aspect really, but the bible study we have just done illustrates it powerfully.
The third thing you will declare on Sunday is “I renounce evil”. The parable stops before we find out, but my guess is Harry doesn’t wait for the end of the party only to nick another grand from his Dad and get back to Thailand. He has a new life back with his father. Wasn’t Zacchaeus remarkable. When he met Jesus his life was completely changed, he renounced his former most likely corrupt and treacherous ways, gave half his possessions to the poor and gave back four times the amount he had defrauded. When a person meets Jesus he cannot remain the same, the change may happen slowly or quickly but he will long to renounce evil. That is the third thing which you will declare on Sunday. Let’s ask ourselves, have we yet made that commitment to live a life under Jesus’ rule, rejecting the example of the world around us, even our close friends at times, and renouncing evil.
So those are the three stages, and that is what you will be declaring on Sunday. I repent of my sins, I turn to Christ, I renounce evil. Let’s examine ourselves, can we say those things not just with our lips but also with our hearts?

Pray.

Change my life? OR “Morality is like Art. It’s a matter of Taste”

What is Christian morality, and why should I embrace it?
Consider: a few popular approaches to morality, contrast them with Christian morality
Ethical Hedonism
Perhaps the most common, least complicated and therefore most accessible moral system is Hedonism. It makes pleasure the most important pursuit of mankind, and in most cases, my pleasure.
So how do I know whether something is right or wrong?
Well the question is will it make me happy?
I don’t know if you looked at a self help book in WHSmiths recently, but they give us a real indication of what this will look like. You should do whatever will make you feel good about yourself. Are you feeling oppressed? Don’t be. Be confident and you can always get your way. Are you feeling angry? Don’t let it get the better of you, get it off your chest? Are you unhappy with your marriage? Don’t suffer needlessly, get a divorce. Are you unhappy with being pregnant right now? Don’t let it worry you, have an abortion.
The problem with this approach is that pleasure is a great by-product of life, but a dangerous goal.
I read part of Eric Clapton’s autobiography in the Sunday times a few weeks ago. It became so apparent that here was a man who, in all things had pursued unadulterated pleasure, and he had the tools to do it with as well. So he had a string of beautiful women, whomever he fancied at the time, whether he was married to them or not. He drank he took drugs, lived the high life, any pleasure that money could afford, and it left him a destitute man in the end, because no pleasure was sufficient to cure his yearning, and indeed many pleasures he obtained a great cost, a cost to his family and private life which he only paid later. The fact is an individual may get through his own life unscathed but the mess he will leave behind in other’s lives is untold. So pleasure is not a good one to live for.
Moral relativism – cultural morality
Secondly there is moral relativism. An individual guides himself not by any greater, higher moral principles but often, though not exclusively espouses a cultural morality, that means he chooses the path of least resistance according to the society he is in. He hates the apparent arrogance of those who believe there is one absolute idea of right and wrong. Who are we to lay exclusive claim to morality. What is right for one person may not be right for another. But since we have to choose some kind of code, he’ll go for the society’s consensus. If everyone seems to like the idea of giving to charity, sure he’ll give to charity. If it’s acceptable to dodge taxes, he’ll dodge taxes, If people around him are ganging up on the Jews, he’ll join in, if slavery is the norm in society, who is he to argue?
It’s attractive. The moral relativist doesn’t have to think much – because if morality is relative it doesn’t matter too much. No one can categorically say that what you do is wrong. So you don’t need to beat yourself up thinking about it.
The problem has already been highlighted. Without moral absolutes, ideas about right and wrong that are true for all time and all places, societies very quickly implode morally. The Moral relativist could not say, for example, that there was anything wrong with flying planes into the twin towers, cannibalism, the holocaust, or child labour. You see all these ‘crimes’ were committed by individuals who, according to him, have just as much right to decide what is right or wrong as he does.
You might be thinking, yes but how about moral relativism, only with a couple of unchanging ground rules, like don’t murder, don’t oppress etc.
But that isn’t moral relativism. The moral relativist who signs up to the Human rights Charter is no longer relativist. He is a moral dictator, an absolutist, he is not tolerant at all. The fact that lost of people agree with him does not make him any less absolutist.
Moral absolutism
So that leads us onto moral absolutism. That is laying down a code claiming it is the truth, living by it and justifying intervention in the affairs of others if they transgress against that moral code. This can be horrific, or quite acceptable. The Taleban in Afghanistan prohibited women from working; from wearing clothing regarded as "stimulating and attractive," including the "Iranian chador," viewed as insufficiently complete in its covering); from taking a taxi without a "close male relative"; washing clothes in streams; or having their measurements taken by tailors.
The fact is we are all in some way moral absolutists. Whether we call ourselves tolerant or not, whether we recognise it or not we all have some basic beliefs about right and wrong which we do not believe are cultural, or socially derived but are always true.
The problem is. Which moral absolutes are right. For example, why can you say it is wrong to kill someone because of their faith? What authority do you have over any other person?
But now it really matters. We are all absolutists of one kind or another and the bible says that is because we have God’s laws written on our hearts. Deep down, even if we differ on the rules, we all know there is right and wrong and we want to do right.

Christian Morality
This is where Christian morality comes in.
I believe it answers all those questions and more.
Christian morality has absolutes. But they are not just plucked out of the air, they are God’s commands. The only one in a position to make absolute, uncontestable judgments.
Why do Christians say murder is wrong? Not because they think they are clever, but because God says it.
Why do Christians believe sex is for marriage? Not because they think they are clever but because God says it.
Of course this is wonderfully liberating. Following the majority is an awful way of deciding what is right (imagine being a German during the 2nd world war), it’s just inconsistent to say that you don’t care about morality because everyone makes value judgments weighing up the good and the bad. So how should you live, well what better way than to live the way that the creator designed you. Imagine a monkey got hold of an excellent bottle of wine and went around hitting other monkeys with it because he knew no better. What a waste! How much better to do with it what the maker intended and drink it. In the same way, from our perspective we could easily make a mistake in the way we live because we do not understand what we were created for.
But Christian morality is far more than that. It’s not about following another set of rules, it’s about a whole new purpose.
Imagine you’re an extra terrestrial and your earthling friend invites you to a wedding. Unfortunately your rookie pilot took a wrong turn at the milkyway so you arrive late, only to hear the vows. You hear the following comfort her, honour and protect her,
and, forsaking all others,
be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?
Your English isn’t that good and so you miss the next bit until you hear “to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death us do part” Now you have no idea of the background of the event and you can’t read human emotions Illustration about marriage.
You think marriage is just a bunch of rules. Getting married means committing to doing certain things and not doing others that’s all.
Well that’s a gross misrepresentation. Sure there are rules, but marriage is not about rules, the behaviour described in those rules is the outworking of a relationship. And they can’t be separated from the relationship. So, in a marriage relationship for example you can’t go and have sex with someone else who isn’t you spouse and then claim that’s ok because you thought married people are meant to have sex. It’s not just what you do, but who you do it for.
You can’t separate the action from the recipient of the action. It’s the same with Christianity. It is not simply a standalone moral code, which can be bought into according to choice.
Which means following a commandment in isolation doesn’t make you a Christian. It doesn’t make sense to say he’s nice to people and therefore is a Christian anymore than it makes sense to say he’s always doing romantic things for all sorts of different women therefore he’s a good husband.
Christian morality is not just following rules, it is embracing a whole new purpose. That purpose is to live in relationship to him and to live in honour and praise towards him through our moral decisions.

So – hedonism – doesn’t come up with the goods, and spells chaos for the world
moral relativism – an illusion, and who wants to say for example that genocide is a question of cultural context
moral absolutism – great but where do you get your ideas from?
Christian morality – wouldn’t it be a shame to be a monkey missing out on what life is all about because we failed to read the maker’s instructions.

Do you admit you've done wrong?

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about^[a^] himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

To some schoolboys who were quite confident that they were doing frightfully well and that God was chuffed to bits with them and who rather looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable on a Sunday evening one summer: "Two Etonians went into chapel one morning at 8.40, one of them, menzies-menzies-rotherington was in E block, in Junior Colts firsts for rugby and cricket, had already been tipped for pop, had just aced his Spanish GCSE oral which he had done early because he was so indescribably clever, and was already looking forward to helping people out on his gap year with raleigh international because he was such a nice bloke; the other was a shabby looking contemporary of his, in the same house, who was in tardy book for the fourth week this term, had just cheated in his french coursework, was on a rustication warning for bullying and was dreading seeing the lowermaster on the bill the next week . They stood up, mumbled their way through the hymns, as only etonians do, and then sat down for the prayers, the first boy cast a quick glance around lower chapel and prayed about himself: "God, I thank you that I am not like other boys, - Harrovians, Haileyburians, Wellingtonians, indeed, or even any of these lesser Etonians like scrumpington mi here (that was the second boys name). I am very popular, I've got good banter with the potential poppers in the year above already, I'm highly talented at rugby and cricket, and will probably be a serious hit in the starring role of the lower school play later this summer. I'm generous too, - I'm already thinking about giving my precious time to go on a gap year with raleigh international to build a house in Timbuktu.

But the second boy didn't look around: he buried his head in his hands. He would not even look up to heaven, but clasped his hands together in such frustration at all that he had done wrong that his temples hurt, and said "God have mercy on me, a sinner".

Now how does the next bit go?

"I tell you God was chuffed to bits with the very sporty super trendy loads of mates budding popper as well but he didn't think much of the other bloke?...

wrong actually, it finishes like this

"I tell you that this boy, rather than the first, went away justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

So hang on. Did I just say what you think I said? Did I just say that God prefers scrumpington mi, that living wreck of a child over the brightest and best of E block? Did I just say that God accepted the rebel rude boy over the really talented thoroughly good chap. Am I really suggesting that God goes for the fool who knows he's wrong instead of the future captain of rugby who thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread?

Well, yes I did and yes I am.

Only don't take my word for it. What did Jesus say when he told this parable. A little background: The Pharisees were really good blokes. Everyone looked up to them as an example of good living. They were people like RERD. And this pharisee that Jesus mentioned was no exception, he gave ten percent of all he had to the poor. Just imagine the kind of guy who goes to Tudor stores, and for every quid he spends on lemon sherbet dippers he puts 10pence in the charity box. And Tax collectors on the other hand were bad, like an ultra evil and corrupt version of a traffic warden.

And Jesus says that the tax collector went home justified, that is accepted by God, rather than the Pharisee.

So basically the parable is saying those who look good to us, are not necessarily those who look good to God. Or, if we transfer that into this environment, that means those who look good at school, the popular ones, the respected ones, are not necessarily those who look good to God. So just think for a moment, who are the people that everyone thinks are great in your year. Who are the people who are particularly religious in your year. Jesus is saying that they are not necessarily the people whom God accepts.

Now the lower master is shifting anxiously from side to side, wondering whether I am going to leave it at that. So I better explain myself.

There was one crucial difference between these two men that completely cancels out all the rest.

Who here has watched the apprentice with sir Alan Sugar who is this mega angry mega rich guy. My wife Emily and I have become apprentice addicts, and along with two other friends we religiously gather every week to watch it. If you're not a fan, basically what happens is that every week an ever dwindling number of wannabe apprentices get given a task to do, in two teams, and at the end they get called into Sir Alan Sugar's boardroom where he makes them explain their incompetence. Every week one person on the team that loses gets fired, but not before they've had a thorough dressing down from Sir Alan Sugar. Eventually all but one will be eliminated, and Sir Alan Sugar will have his new apprentice.

Well, the thing is, God is basically the opposite of Alan Sugar. Alan Sugar basically runs everyone over the coals in the boardroom and accepts people who are over confident, fight their corner, never give in, and who show their superiority over those around them.

God is the opposite. There is only one criterion for being accepted by God: you've just got to admit you've done wrong. Alan Sugar wants people who think they're right and have the confidence to stand up for themselves under pressure. God on the other hand wants only those who are actually prepared to recognise they're not always right and they've messed up. That tax collector was a moral failure, but God accepted him, because he realised he'd done wrong and needed forgiveness. The pharisee thought he deserved a medal and a couple of birthday honours for being such a great bloke, and God rejected him.

One thought he was God's gift to the world, the other realised he had nothing to give and could only receive.

One of them thought he was a credit to God, whilst the other realised that he was in eternal debt.

One was sef-righteous, the other self-condemned

But in the end, the One who exalted himself and was humbled, the one humbled himself and was exalted.

So do you see, it didn't actually make a difference what they had done with their lives on the outside, whether Pharisee or tax collector, whether budding popper or scrumpington mi, the big issue is: Did they admit they had done wrong?

So you'll be pleased to hear, and so will the lower master, that I'm not saying that if you're talented and popular God automatically doesn't accept you, nor that if you're a troublemaker God automatically does. In the end it's a question of heart attitude.

Whether you are successful in the eyes of Eton, in the eyes of your peers, in the eyes of the world or not, what matters is your attitude to God. Do you come to him humbly with regret for the ways you have rebelled against him, or do you come to him, like David Beckham from Madrid to the Los Angeles Galaxy, thinking, boy he must be chuffed to bits to have me on his side.

After all It could have been the other way round after all. It could have been that the popular guy was actually very humble, and realised that for all his talents he was well short of God's standards, it could have been that scrumpington mi was arrogant to boot, that he didn't recognise he'd done wrong at all, nor feel any inclination to change. In any case what matters is Do we admit that we have done wrong.

I think Jesus' parable would have us ask a few questions of ouselves:

Firstly, If you do not believe Jesus words are true, which of course each man must decide for himself, how is it that we gain acceptance by God, and how do you know whether you are right?

secondly, if we trust Jesus' words, Have we ever come into chapel, or prayed anywhere and beaten our breast in sorrow and repentance. Now I know we're Brits, and we're Etonians, and upper lips probably don't come any stiffer, but you get my point. Have we ever, like that tax collector, like scrumpington mi, felt deep pain and regret at our wrongdoing against God. Have you ever shed a tear when you come to God? If not, will we not remain unaccepted by God, just like the pharisee?

thirdly, Have we ever felt like that tax collector, recognised that we are rotten, broken through and through, and perhaps been tempted to think that God could never accept us? Let's be reminded, that whether we are the Pharisee, the tax collector, menzies-menzies-rotherington, scrumpington mi, Alan Sugar, David beckham or anyone else, God's love in the cross of Jesus Christ covers, washes away the greatest of our wrongdoings, if only we would ask for his mercy.