Call to worship: Psalm 32:6-7
6Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress,* the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.
7You are a hiding-place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
Hymn – 3 – Abba Father
Prayer of Adoration
Holy Father, Mighty Redeemer, you have made an incredible universe, a wonderful creation, full of beauty, wonder and opportunity.
Each breath that we take is by your design and at your pleasure
You are all sufficient, needing nothing from us, but it is right that we should praise you
You are our all-powerful, all seeing, all knowing, God
You are our beginning and our ending
Our hope and our refuge
The source of all life and the measure of all speech
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty Redeemer
We glorify your name and we praise your acts of creation and of redemption
Prayer of Confession
But as we contemplate your might and your majesty, your perfect and saving love, we realise that we have not been worthy of the faith you have called us to
We have missed opportunities to serve you,
We have avoided responsibilities and duties that you have called us to
We have ignored voices calling to us for help and for mercy.
Forgive us, Father for the times that we have been distant from our brothers and sisters
For the times when we have been irritable and obstinate, indifferent and evasive in a world full of events in which we are called to act, to take sides and to be passionate for your Word
Declaration of forgiveness
And yet no amount of failure on our part is too much for the oceans of grace in which you have submerged us
Your forgiveness is vast and without limit
It is mighty and efficient, overpowering our weakness, outstripping our selfishness and overwhelming the sin that is in us and that has come from us
In the death and resurrection of your Son
And in the pentecost of your Spirit
You have forgiven our sins
And we praise you, and thank you, and pledge ourselves to you
For this wonderful mercy and grace that you cause us to possess
Petition for the Worship
We come before you now to seek out your word within the words of scripture
And to ask that your Spirit be with us, to guide and inspire, to challenge and chastise us
Be with us, Lord, in this time of worship.
Unite our hearts with each others’
Help us to examine our lives
Open our hearts and our minds
Be with us now as we seek to be the church that you have called into being
A faithful community of believers existing in, and for, your Word
We ask this of you in Jesus’ name as we say the words Jesus taught us…
Our father
Old Testament Reading: Joshua 5: 9-12
Hymn 515 – O love that wilt not let me go
New Testament Reading: 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21
Both of today’s readings were from the New Living Translation – follow the above links to read them in the NLT.
Message
I focused on the first two verses of this reading and considered the following different translations:
Good news: “No longer, then do we judge anyone by human standards”
NRSV: “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,* we know him no longer in that way”
NIV: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.”
New Living Translation: “16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
KJV: “16Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.”
The King James Version is the most correct, in that the most literal translation of what the Greek text says, talking about viewing ourselves ‘according to the flesh’ or ‘after the flesh’ or ‘in the flesh’. But this phrase doesn’t really mean that much to us today so the modern translations are helpful.
What they tell us is that when the New Testament authors talked about the ‘flesh’ in this context they were talking about the human viewpoint and the human standard, as opposed to the heavenly viewpoint and the heavenly standard.
When Christians talk about their ‘sinfulness’ this seems harsh and certainly out of step with modern human standards and perspectives. It doesn’t always go down well to suggest that the lost son in the parable of the Lost Son may represent all human beings, not just those that appear ‘lost’ to us,
But that’s because we are viewing ourselves (and Jesus) from a human, creaturely perspective. If we view ourselves from a purely human standard we may well conclude that we are pretty agreeable people, certainly better behaved than a good deal of people. Morally or ethically we tend to judge ourselves by comparing ourselves with what we know other humans to be like – but Paul is telling us in this verse that we should no longer be doing this.
And we should no longer be viewing Jesus in this way either. Sadly many people in the churches talk about Jesus, and pray to Jesus in such a way that they too seem to be viewing him from a human perspective. When it is said that Jesus ‘would have thought that…’ or ‘must have realised that…’ this doesn’t sound like we are talking about the Son of God. When people refer to the religious and cultural practices that Jesus grew up with, and so explain what his understanding of a certain situation would have been according to this upbringing – then they are limiting Jesus to his humanity and ignoring his divinity.
Lets be clear. In Jesus there was full humanity and full divinity. He wasn’t just a man with spiritual gifts and insights. He had much more than a close relationship with God – he had the perfect relationship with God because he was God at the same time as being a distinct human being. This is impossible to explain but not impossible to believe and to understand.
And Jesus is the proto-type for humans, the first fruits of the harvest. And in him we see the perfect human with the perfect relationship to God – perfect obedience, perfect service, perfect union. And this is the divine standard against which we should judge our moral actions. And this is the divine perspective from which we should see ourselves and others.
By this standard we are clearly all sinners. Christianity does not exist to teach you how to gain the respect and admiration of your fellow human beings, it teaches you how to mend your relationship with God. And the first step towards doing this is an awareness that according to divine standards, and according to the divine perspective, we are very far from Holy.
So what? The point is that we are aiming for the approval of God not of other humans – that’s why the bar is set so incredibly high for us in Jesus. And we can’t get God’s approval by our moral or spiritual behaviour except by accepting just how far we are from Jesus’ perfect example and then throwing ourselves on God’s mercy.
The bar is set so high when we look at what is asked of us from a human perspective. But humanity does not expect to live beyond the grave, and the approval of other humans by being relatively good carries no other reward. We are talking about access to eternal life here, so we shouldn’t be too surprised if the entry requirements are pretty demanding.
Especially when we consider that God knows full well that we can’t meet these standards, and so arranges for us to enter his kingdom in spite of our sin, and according to his mercy.
But we can’t experience mercy without first experiencing some sense of judgment. We can’t be made fit for God’s mercy if we don’t see that we are in need of it. That’s why we must no longer view ourselves according to the flesh, or rather according to human standards or perspectives.
And the judgment that we are sinners is not so harsh when we consider that we are being judged by a heavenly standard – according to the example of Jesus Christ. And the judgment that we are sinners becomes even less of a problem when we realise that we are forgiven sinners, and in that forgiveness we can gain access to God’s kingdom just as though we were perfect.
Prayer of Intercession
Loving God
Give us a heavenly viewpoint, a vision that sees the world in the light of your truth
Give us a perspective on life that is not limited by our weakness and our frailty
Let us see all according to your purpose, to your promise, to your word and by your spirit
For we would inherit that divine nature that was in Christ
We would be transformed as Christ was
And we would be raised from the dead, into your presence as Christ was
Make us see Jesus truly as Christ, in our speech and our thought make us mindful of his divinity, of his majesty and his might
For you are in him and he is in you, may be in us too, drawing us nearer into your eternal essence
And help us to see ourselves as we are in relationship to him
Help us to understand just how wide and deep is the distance between us and you, our creator.
Prevent us from judging our own goodness or achievements by human standards
May we look always to the perfect example that is in Jesus
Stop us from pursuing only that human righteousness, that human goodness that is temporary, and is extinguished
Urge us, lead us, change us, so that we look to that righteousness, that goodness, that is divine, that comes from you and can be ours by faith
May we seek always your mercy, may we understand always why we need your mercy, may our hearts be broken yet mended, heavy yet light in that beautiful encounter between sinners and their redeemer,
Father we ask for your tender mercy knowing that it leads to joy, freedom, and love for all humanity.
At this very moment, and as we leave this place of worship, and throughout the coming week
May we feel in our hearts your righteousness, your truth
May we know that we have become your children and a new imperishable and unstoppable life has become ours
Give us that new life By the power of your holy Spirit
And in Jesus’ name, Amen
Hymn – 551– Out of my bondage
Blessing/Dismissal – 1 Peter 1:13-16
Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. 14Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. 15Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’
We closed by saying the Grace together.