What’s your part?

One of the most exciting and fulfilling parts of my life is theatre;

Those of you who know me well, know that it’s something I love to do, in all honesty, in an ideal world, it would be something I would do I full time if I could. From beginning to end it is such a thrilling process.

After an audition, cast who know each other will get in touch and ask “What did you get what’s your part?”

After that, the journey to stage begins the readings in front of us today, are in many ways are asking us both individually and collectively what our part is:

• They’re are asking us how we look at the world
• How we view God
• And what we think we are meant to do for God

If we turn to Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; we see a bit of all too familiar old testament lamenting: the interesting thing about this is the lamenting speaks to us from multiple angles; we hear it the point of view of:

• God
• His prophet
• And the community to whom the prophet is send
• God is lamenting at his peoples heartbreak and lack of trust in his love
• Jeremiah is lamenting because he is offering help that no one is accepting
• And the community is lamenting because they want they want their suffering to end

What I love about this reading, is its unbridled honesty, God’s being being honest and of course Jeremiah; we know, is so honest that he has a reputation as a prophet of doom and gloom: and the people are starting to walk into honesty.

You might note with me today; that God’s honesty is not based around vengeance, but rather viewpoint of a heart broken parent because he knows that his children have to work through the results of the actions.

In simple terms, we see today that the people are looking everywhere but to God for help.

It raises two questions for the modern seeker: How honest are being God and each other? And it gets us looking at our support system, our community: Where are we looking for life and support?

For its part, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, is a familiar reading about how we as Christians are called to interact with society, particularly with those in positions of “authority”

In fact, in the Pentecostal world we were often encouraged to pray for governments and so forth. Which we should do but as with so many things that are designed to wake us up, the is more to it than we think.

At the time this was written, the Christian church was coming to life inside a multi god culture and it was also a culture in which emperors and kings were viewed as divine. That’s why inside Timothy we find a gentle but impassioned statement about the love of God as known in Jesus.

As we just heard a moment ago, the reading is basically in three parts.

First, the audience is being ask to pray for those in positions of authority To acknowledge and honour their place in society.

Second, there’s is a gentle cry to live in peace and worship freely, and if we know our history we know that was a hard thing for early Christians to do.

Third, the reality of God in Christ is laid out for not only that audience, but for all of mankind to see.

What does it mean for the modern Christian or seeker?

We might want ask ourselves:

How are we interacting with those who have authority over us? Whatever the kind. Now when I ask that question, I am not saying that You should become passive to the point of putting up with bad or dangerous treatment. No! What I am saying is that I believe Christians are being called to gracefully pray and interact with this world that God Loves!

We could also ask what distractions our facing / what are idolizing?

Or to put it another way, is there something we are not seeing through The eyes of Christ? Take a minute to think about that.

And, the beautiful declaration of faith at the end get us thinking; what’s Our story and how can we share it?

The Gospel for today is hard to describe, if I was to try and find a word to do it: one word might be intense.

Inside Luke 16:1-13, again we see a familiar scene, Jesus tell a story of someone in a position of authority who wastes it, he’s is going to lose everything, so what does he do? He uses his authority of over others to survive and he is praised for that! Is anyone else confused by that?

Is Our Lord commending dishonesty? No, what I believe we are being shown is that we should be as “street smart” as the dishonest manager: And use our connections and positions to spread messages of love, grace And care to those we are involved with.

We are being reminded that a huge part of our calling is to establish and promote relationships based on the reciprocity of grace.

We are shown in a undeniable way what true power looks like and how we should use it: Those of you who know your Bibles will be able to think of many examples of that:

Some that come to my mind are the Good Samaritan, Jesus forgiving the woman caught in adultery and of course the ultimate act of liberation the cross.

So, today on a seemingly ordinary Sunday morning: what’s our part?

you and I are being asked to participate in the great reversal and we are being asked to participate in theredefining of terms such power, authority, love and grace.

We are being asked to share the love we know, while at the same time being aware that for many around the term Christian doesn’t carry positive imagery.

We are being asked through Jeremiah, to remember that love is always with us, even when it seems that reality turns to rubble.

We are being asked through Timothy to never forget to mix belief with grace.

And finally we are being asked through Luke, to used our connections And positions to ensure that the love of God is known to all people.

We are being asked to use our very lives to wipe every form of oppression, we are being asked to use our voices to support those love.

So, as we leave here today I hope that you and I can find a way to say to those around us “Hey I love you and God does too”