Listen to YouTube: ‘God So Loved we the kingdom Lyrics’
And can it be that I should ain an interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain— For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou, my God, should die for me?
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
(Charles Wesley 1707-88)
Tell God about how pleased you are that through Jesus your sins have been forgiven.
BLM – Black Lives Matter. We can in no way describe ourselves as an ethnically diverse congregation so how does this movement affect us? It is affecting our nation – our city – even our own community – so it affects us as we try bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to our locality.
I would never dare to use the phrase ‘I know how you feel’ because that just isn’t possible. Any discrimination I have experienced is unlike that which has caused people to take up the cry BLM, but what I do know is that God understands the effect discrimination has had on their lives, and I want each and every person to know that God understands our unique, individual circumstances and loves us and wants us to know the joy of his salvation in our lives.
Some of you are undoubtedly thinking I agree that discrimination is wrong, but when I see violence, rioting and vandalism on the news I become less certain about my support for BLM. Well I’m sure you can think of various occasions when on TV someone has said “speaking as a Christian…” and what has come out of their mouth has been words which you utterly disagree with, so just because someone does or says something in the name of BLM doesn’t mean they speak for everybody, or even speak for the majority. The News programmes highlight the violence and vandalism of a relatively few people but the vast majority of those who identify themselves having experienced racial discrimination would want to disassociate themselves with these actions, and so the acts we disagree with shouldn’t stop us supporting the overall aims of this movement.
Today’s bible reading is one we read just over a month ago - Jesus telling the story of the Good Samaritan. Samaritans lived in the land of Israel but were easy to identify as not being Jews, they may have had a slightly different skin-tone, they certainly dressed differently, and although they spoke the same language, they had a different accent and used different phrases and terminology.
If before Jesus started to tell this story about being a good neighbour you were able to talk to the many Jews gathered around him for their thoughts on Samaritans some may have said “Samaritans should go back to where they came from” – 700 years earlier the Samaritans had come as immigrants into Israel, and while in many ways they had taken on the same way of life as the Jews, they had also retained some of their ethnic distinctiveness. With all this in mind read Luke 10: 25-37
This well-loved story has many lessons for us to take from it. Today I highlight the facts that Jesus chose as the hero, a person whose life didn’t matter in the eyes of the audience, but Jesus challenges their perceptions and says love the Samaritans with the same love God has shown you.
Throughout the gospels we read of many conversations Jesus had with those who were discriminated against - lepers (those who might give me a virus), tax collectors (those working for the persecutors), Roman officials (the persecutors) and the list continues – Jesus’ words and actions tell us that he thought every life matters and so we, as followers of Jesus, are challenged as to how we can show those around us the same love we have experienced from God – to love your neighbour as yourself.
In the Old Testament we find some helpful words about how to show God’s love through our words and actions: Micah 6: 8 …what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Use the lyrics to this song to inspire your prayers for those who daily face discrimination; for those with the power to bring about changes – politicians and civil servants; and for our neighbours, especially those we have little contact with.
Brother, sister let me serve you, let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
We are pilgrims on a journey and companions on the road;
we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load
I will hold the Christ-light for you in the night-time of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping; when you laugh I’ll laugh with you;
I will share your joy and sorrow till we've seen this journey through.
(Richard Gillard © 1977 Scripture in Song / Thank You Music)
Listen on YouTube: ‘Knowing You Shane & Shane Lyrics’
Next Sunday (21st) at 5pm you may want to join me on ‘zoom’ for 40 minutes of fellowship. Next Saturday the leader who has been contacting you will pass on an email giving you the link to join the event. It isn’t a service, neither is it me preaching, but an opportunity for each of us to share with everyone else a verse of scripture or song lyrics which has helped us during lock-down. If someone shares the same words you were going to share, I still want you to share them – if God is blessing lots of us with the same words it will be helpful to know this.
I look forward to writing to you again on Wednesday - Stephen