Psalm 66:8-20; I Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-2; 1 Acts 17:22-31
Preached at Beckley Presbyterian Church on May
1st 2005
Once a year, usually at Earls Court in London, England
there is held “The Ideal Home” show. Don’t be fooled into thinking
that this is some kind of family based weekend of seminars on relationships between spouses or advice on potty training or
helpful hints on dealing with children in their teens. ‘Ideal Home’
is a trade exhibition where you can see the latest gadgets, the latest designs, the newest and the best.
I guess the theory is that if you have a home that’s
up to date with an automated everything, solar driven lawn mowers, self flushing toilets and a perfectly blended and themed
kitchen where the decor matches the pots and pans and the table napkins perfectly compliment the ceiling fans, then you will
have a happy, blissful, contented and ideal home.
As Christian people we would probably all wish to
have ideal Christian homes. But I wonder what sort of image that phrase calls
to mind? What would an ideal Christian family look like?
Would they be middle class, squeaky clean, neat and
tidy, never missing a service at church, ever so polite, ever so dedicated to everything they put their minds to; a kind of
spiritualized Brady Bunch?
Or would they be that environmentally friendly family,
father with an earring or two, mother always with smiling faced children around and a nursing a baby, living frugally with
their limited means in their ergonomic trailer home, adopting refugee children, campaigning constantly for world peace, always
first to volunteer for building Habitat homes and Mission trips?
Or would they have by now left the country, Father
and Mother and teenage sons and daughters (having all graduated from Bible College) all in perfect harmony, working in some
forgotten corner of creation amongst nomadic animistic tribes, facing daily the threat of crocodiles, cannibals and nasty
foreign diseases, never uttering one word of complaint, succumbing to a single argument, but daringly, carefully and prayerfully
saving the world?
What is your image of an ideal Christian family?
How does your own family compare
to it?
Chances are that we expect
the sort of high ideals for Christian families
that most of us never even get close to in our real lives.
Ever thought about Jesus’ family background?
His mother had been a teenaged bride who became pregnant out of wedlock. Amongst His ancestors were the prostitute Rahab, the materialistic King Solomon who,
though famed for His wisdom, was not wise enough to curb his spending before splitting the nation into fragments, and the
anointed King David, an adulterer and a murderer. And those are the good cards
in the pack!
Ever thought about Jesus’ home life? He starts out life in a stable, then becomes a refugee in a foreign land before moving
to Galilee (Which was sort of the ‘Redneck’ district of Israel). He
has brothers and sisters, but from the lack of mention of father Joseph at the time Jesus starts His ministry, we presume
Joseph had died and that Jesus was head of the household.
It can’t have been easy in that position to
leave and embark on a mission that would have its destiny in a cross. What about
the family it was His duty to support? Maybe such an experience lay behind His
strong words, that to follow Him meant having a love for God that made all other loves seem like hatred by comparison.
His family weren't exactly supportive. When He was a boy missing in the temple, His parents get mad at Him.
Half way through His mission the whole family are convinced He has lost His mind and try to persuade Him to come home.
It wasn't that Jesus didn't care or have a plan. We
know that even as He hung on the cross He told the disciple John to take care of His mum and that His brother James became
a leader in the Jerusalem church.
Our families are not ideal families. Our homes are not ideal homes. We are not ideal people. Yet…within all those limitations, allowing for all those crazy family dynamics,
it is within our families and our homes that Jesus calls us to love Him and to obey His commandments.
When we place our trust in Jesus Christ, His promise
is that God's Spirit will make a home in our lives. Hear what Jesus says in verse 18 of John 14, “I will not leave
you desolate; I will come to you.... because I live, you will live also... you will know that I am in my Father, and you in
me, and I in you."
As we place our trust
in Jesus Christ, our lives become a dwelling place for His love. We start trying to live in a way that reflects the relationship
that we have with God. And this is not easy. We
mess up and don’t always live up to our own ideals, let alone others.
We may live with folks
who are not as excited about faith as we are. Folks who don’t see things
the way we do. Folks whom we feel can impede our spiritual progress. I don’t think that should surprise us. That’s how
it was in Jesus’ house.
We may be called to
work every day alongside people who care nothing for our beliefs or the One we believe in. Such
an atmosphere may not be the most conducive to personal spiritual development. Again
we should not be surprised. Jesus speaks in 14:17 of how our lives are indwelt
by “The Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him.”
We may sometimes feel that we worship alongside people or belong to
a church that is far from being an ideal spiritual home. Again, don’t be
surprised. The Church, any church, whatever the ‘brand name’, is
not a community of the sanctified, but a ship full of sinners. If we found the
ideal church home, the moment we walked through the door we’d mess it up! We
wouldn’t belong. We need help!
The Good News? Jesus tells
us help is available: Verse 14 - "If you
ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
Verse 16 - “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another, the Helper, that He may be with
you forever.”
The only restriction on asking and receiving is given in verse 15 -
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” In other words, if we ask for anything out of selfish concern or out of a heart that has no intention of
seeking to live God’s way, then the God who loves us more than we love each other isn’t about to let us have something
that will mess our lives up even more.
But if we ask God to help us become the sort of people we know in our
hearts that God wants us to be, then God will help us. His Spirit, the Helper,
the Advocate and Counselor, will be with us. His love will be in us and working
through us. God will help us with that situation at home, with that situation
at work, with that situation in our church, in our personal life, in our spiritual life. “Because I live,” promises Jesus, “you
also shall live.”
We can only have ideal homes to the extent that we welcome the love
of Jesus Christ to find a home in our own hearts. That’s where it starts.
That’s where the change can come. “Let
there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” The best hope for others
to come alive to the reality of God’s presence is for that presence to come alive in us!
So I invite you this morning to feast upon bread and wine, to nourish
your life through this sacrament of Holy Communion. It is a time for reflection
and soul seeking, for putting our own house in order, for questioning our motives, for seeking God’s help, for asking
and receiving.
It is a time to ask Jesus Christ to indwell our hearts through the
Holy Spirit so that we may abide in Him and He in us, that our lives may achieve greater unity with the purposes and will
of God.
Every human heart is designed to be an ideal home for the love of God. Revelation 3:20 declares, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together
as friends.” May this be a time for hearing and responding and for
knowing the friendship of God around a table laid with God’s good gifts. Amen.
Adrian Pratt
