A Prayer For The Community

Lord Jesus we are in great trouble and destress. Community life is at an all time low- our people are at odds with each other, the police have lost the support of the community and our elected politicians feel under great pressure to conform to what the people want. Everyone does what they feel is right in their own eyes. we have lost our vision and are in danger of perishing.

Will you forgive us for the sins of the past? We confess to you that we have not kept you at the centre of all that we do. In days past our community has not always treated those who do not share our political vision with the respect and courtesy they deserve and your word expects. There have been times when we have failed to speak out when wrong things have been done in our name and we have given cover to those who have done the wrong things. We have not looked to you alone as the one to save us.

Will you help us through the work of re-construction in society and revival in your church?
Empower us to be the people you want us to be and strengthen your people to serve the community and to live our lives in such a way as to bring glory and honour to your name. Help us to work for peace in our land and in our times.

My prayer is that Northern Ireland will no longer be a by-word for sectarian strife but a name which inspires hope in the hearts of all divided people. Help us to live with differance and make us eager and willing to accommodate one another. May our slogan be "Ireland For Christ and Christ alone".

This is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

TRUE GREATNESS

True Greatness

The other night we had the battle of the giants- the English Premier Champions against the European Champions. While it was a draw the European champions had the moral victory! What make a team great? What make a nation great? What is it about Britain that makes her great? When Knox Mitchell was ordained in this church as the first minister in 1867 everything about Britain was great and Belfast was a great city within a great Empire. Britain was, as the USA is today, the richest nation in the world- the globe was predominately pink to show that the British Empire reigns without challenge or equal-from Canada in the west to New Zealand in the east and that included huge swathes of Africa in the middle. Belfast was the 20^th largest city in the UK and was a world leader in Ship buildings, engineering, rope making and, of course in the Linens industry.

In parallel to this the working man and woman was experiencing life at the raw edge- while they helped to make Britain great a Belfast a leading city of industry they experienced few of the benefits and when they were unemployed or sick they were shown little sympathy or practical help. In 1900 an article in Bibby’s Annual had a picture of some unemployed men and it goes on to say,

“These men should be made to feel… that their condition is a disgrace…Teach them how to play, run, jump, sing, to get a move on things. Play is action and all action is good!”

At the same time Belfast remained fairly unaffected by the famine which was hitting the rest of the country cutting the population from 8million to 4 million in a matter of years.

When people came here to worship they knew that they were part of a great nation in a great city and that the population had increased extremely quickly because of the expansion in the linen industry- what you find as a rule is that at a time of poverty people rush into the city to find work because the irony is that while the city was becoming prosperous many ordinary people were not-at a time of general prosperity people rush out of the city to seek the better life- so today the trend is in reverse to that of the 19^th century. As people gathered here they gathered in a great city to worship a great God.

Today we find ourselves in a nation which has lost its position as top dog and is seeking to adapt to being a nation of equals in an international scene where empire is no longer acceptable and we are just one of many equal nations and what makes matters worse for us is that our nearest neighbour across the border has been on a fast track of prosperity. We are like the once great football team who can only look back to the glory days.

Belfast City Council has a development department which has produced a document which looks back in history but also looks to the future and concludes with this statement:

“All cities need a clear sense of direction to achieve their goals and, for too long, Belfast has not had a clear vision of what it wants to become.”

That is a very interesting statement. The name of our city comes from the Gaelic –Irish and Scottish- BEAL FEIRSTE and it takes the name from the river Farset [as in the Farset Hostel on the Springfield Road]. The meaning in English is

“the mouth of the sandbank”

Belfast is built on the sand! No wonder we have problems. Here we have a living parable which stands to warn us.

G. K. Chesterton once said that when a people stop believing in God its not that they stop believing in anything but that they start believing in everything and s0 they loose both cohesion and a sense of direction. We need to gain our direction and start to build on the ROCK. For some their direction is on the aspiration of a united Ireland and for others it is a return to the Ulster of old- both aspiration and both impossible for life moves on.

WE need to get back to basics and realise that these aspirations are illusionary and lead to nowhere acceptable for anyone. While we have been pre-occupied by holding our ground and we have lost sight of the God we worship. WE are looking at the wrong things- some are looking intently at the unity of an Ireland which has never existed and in the process have lost the people they want to unite and for others they have focused upon maintaining a colonial Ulster as part of a Britain which no longer exists.

While nations rise and fall God remains the same. If we ask the question- what kind of city do we want to be we can only begin to answer that by centring our focus on the one who si truly great.

Isaiah was a prophet for a people rather like us and for our times. He was speaking to a people who were

• discouraged and despondent
• who felt that the tide of events had been against them for a very long time
• who feel like king Kinute
• who have ceased believing in the cause of Christ in this place

WE make a big mistake if we think this is the worst of times and that there have never been such bad times, the truth is well put by Charles Dickens in a “Tale Of Two Cities” when he said,

“It was the worst of times, it was the best of times”

read the Bible and see if that is not true0- we are not unique either in the world today or in the history of the world.

As we prepare for celebrating communion together lets focus on the one who is Sovereign Lord of ALL.

A great nation and people is a people who follow a great leader and the leader we follow is incomparable because he is the divine Lord. Isaiah says look at Him very carefully and then you will see that he is worth following and will not let you down and will form your vision.

Look at :

• What He has DONE v12-he created the world from NOTHING. In the NT He completes that creation by sending Jesus Christ who gives us SALVATION from our past sins and a HOPE for the future. In Adam we are in bondage, in Christ we are free. This is a freedom which is infinitely greater than any political freedom or franchise. Even those who live under tyranny are free. At present we are free within the confines of our humanity but the day will come when we will be free without restraint.
• NATIONS- In the past Great Britain ruled the world. Today it is the USA and tomorrow? China?

God says that God looks at them and calls them insignificant and meaningless- they rise and they fall at the hand of God.v15

• WORLD- today the world has a huge population of over 6billion and rising every second but when compared to God they are like grasshoppers and yet he also says that God knows the name of every one of the stars in the sky at night.
• LEADERS- When Knox Mitchell was minister it was Gladstone the GOM [later the MOG] and Disraeli [immortalised her in the name of the street.. Today it is Bush, Blair and Putin and many others whose names are not known to us but who wield awesome power and Isaiah says v23 He brings them to nothing.

In short we come to worship the incomparable Lord, God and Saviour and if we focus on him then we will see that being like him is our goal- that is our vision. In Him we have real and true greatness so lets look to him and we will be a great people once again, a Great Britain, a United Kingdom and a people at peace with ourselves and that will transcend political greatness and a desire to accommodate one another. I doing this we will build on the rock and not the sand and we will unite with one another in true unity.

Authorative Christians

At the moment I have an uncle who is very seriously ill in the hospital and watching him in the bed WE ALL FEEL TOTALLY HELPLESS. There is nothing we can do apart from be there and watch his slow deterioration

There are times in all our lives when we can only feel our powerlessness. How often have you heard someone say- “My hands are tied, I can do nothing”?

The other week when the human barricades where up from 4pm each day and the nights were filled with rioting it was perfectly obvious that the police were helpless. When I found myself closed in by lines of women and children and a few angry men the police could only keep a watching brief. One man in a long queue of cars asked me “can you do anything here?” In a word no.

In Luke 4 the context is about the power of Jesus [Holy Spirit]- he leaves the wilderness where he was tempted to imitate Adam in taking control himself and away from God.

He begins his ministry full of the Spirit only to face another temptation- to give in to the crowd but he challenges them instead and walks through the opposition

Then he enters Capernaum and is opposed by this man who is possessed by demons and he begins to work out his manifesto, which he had set out when he read from Isaiah about setting free the prisoners and forgiving sin and recovering the sight of the blind.

All the people were amazed, again at the authority he was showing, this son of Joseph the carpenter. Here is the key word is authority – this man who had such power was also a man with authority. Power and authority are not the same- sometimes people have power and no authority and at other tomes they have the authority and no power

The police have the authority vested in them by the people to maintain law and order but they only have the power when they police with the consent of the same people. Of course they can take power by the force of arms but when they do that they have to be convinced that the end will be justified by the means- past history has shown that there are times when less is best- how often have we seen the authorities, in the movies and in real life, going into a situation with all guns blazing only to discover that more people ,innocent people, were killed in the process and so the short term gain has lead to long term defeat?

When the human barricades went up there was a withdrawal of consent from the unionist population either directly or indirectly when the majority acquiesced. In contrast to that the protestors had the power but no authority. Their authority was not legitimate.

Here we see that Jesus had both power and authority. In Matt 28 he tells us that all power in heaven and on earth has been given to him. This power is from above and here everyone was amazed by his power to deliver from sin and the demons and to save men from their sins- what a man this was. We also see that this was the legitimate power of God it was authorised by Him. He was the Messiah and here lies the whole issue- who was this man really? Was He the Messiah?

In these stories we have that authority manifested over:

• sickness
• the demons
• people

1. DEMONS

This was a time when demons were very prominent in the thinking of the people. They were implacably opposed to this man Jesus Christ- they had no doubts as to who he was. While the religious people questioned his identity the demons knew exactly who he was-

“What do you want with us Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are- the Holy One of God”

Later in the letter of James he says something similar

James 2:19 “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder.”

Jesus shows his power and authority by saying “BE QUIET”

Now here is the difference between authority and power- when the policeman stands in the middle of the road with his hand up or that red torch the traffic stops. If I did the same they would blur the horn and drive on. The uniform tells you that he has the right to stop the traffic. When the women and children stood in the road they had no authority but they had a kind of power, that kind which assumes its own authority for a while- they had little power themselves for they were weak and anyone could have defied them and driven through the ranks but their power was behind them in the community.

In Jesus we have one who has both power and authority- so when he commanded the demons to leave they did so. The result was an utter amazement at his authority.

2. SICKNESS

News about Jesus spread like wildfire and the crowds followed him out of the synagogue and to his mother-in –laws. When he arri8ves there he finds that she is sick with a fever and the family ask him to help her so he bends over her and REBUKES the fever and she gets up at once-again we see his power and authority. Then he spend all night healing the sick and setting them free from the demons. Again they recognise him immediately.

Now he faces another temptation- the temptation to curry favour but he knew that his time was not yet right- he had no desire for them to make him king- like the devil they promised something which they could not give as he was king already.

He was ready to give his all in healing yet not to the point of neglecting his mission to preach the gospel in other towns and cities. Just as he had authority over sickness and the demons so he has control over us also. He can cast out our demons- personally and collectively. He can set free Northern Ireland, Ulster, Ireland and Britain and give us life to the full, if we will just pay attention to him and allow him to direct our ways.

3. PEOPLE

In Chapter v5 we have the calling of Peter as one of his disciples.. While he takes the opportunity to preach to the crowd using the boats as a makeshift platform or pulpit he also draws Simon to himself.. He had seen what Jesus had done for his mother-in-law and for here friends and neighbours and now he experiences this great catch of fish – there are so many fish that the boats began to sink with the weight and peter and the others are left in awesome wonder at this man. Even though they were tired and weary from fishing all night and catching nothing they did what he commanded and their obedience was rewarded way beyond their expectations

Do you stand in wonder at Jesus Christ?

Are you ready to obey him even though you are tired and weary? Are you amazed that he gave his body and his blood that you might have life to the full?

What is your reaction to this wonder? Peter became acutely aware of his own sin and could only feel dirty and unworthy- “Go away from me Lord I am a sinful man”

There is no presumption here only an acute sense of personal failure and sin. Sa we come to the table of the Lord Jesus we too are to come with a deep sense of sinfulness yet also knowing and experiencing His forgiveness- this bread and this wine speak of total forgiveness and complete fellowship with the living Lord. We should never stop being amazed at His grace and mercy. We wants us to be complete human beings just as Jesus himself was-so today we come to accept his forgiveness

To realise his promised new life

And to live in his power and authority.

Yes we are totally helpless when faced with the magnitude of our sin and our hands are tired but this table reminds us that in His power we are “more than conquerors” we are victors and not victims.