Psalm 23

To begin the message today I want to briefly explain what the lectionary is. All of us here today come from many faith backgrounds, different practices and customs. Also, some are new to this church. I don’t want to assume that you are across what we do here and why. So bear with me for a minute.

At this church it is our practice to follow readings from the lectionary. The lectionary is a pre-selected collection of bible readings assigned to Sundays. It follows a three year cycle and over those three years it covers much of the bible.

The lectionary readings for any given Sunday usually include a reading from the gospels, an old testament reading, a psalm and a new testament reading other than the gospels.

This discipline opens the door for us to thoroughly explore the bible over the three year cycle and because the lectionary is followed worldwide by many Christian denominations it provides a sense of oneness. Hugh often says that people all around the world are hearing the same bible readings that we in Gungahlin are hearing each Sunday.

Usually the practice is to give the message based on the gospel reading. It is not compulsory, but it is the usual practice. Thus ends the lesson on the lectionary.

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God, I’m not ok. That’s really not how it’s supposed to be is it?

We are promised so much – if we only have faith, if we only pray, if we only follow Christ’s teachings and his example then we will be blessed. For after all if we are truly god’s people why would he let any harm to come to us?

But you know life is not like that and it’s never been like that – ever. As Jesus said in Matthew 5: 45 “God makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong”.

Many Christians struggle with this.  If God is a loving God, Christ is our Saviour and the Holy Spirit is our guide and encourager then all we have to do is believe and life will work out well.  Have faith and God will bless you, even in material goods. Pray and your prayer will be answered. Proclaim the gospel and you will be rewarded.

To many Christians this underpins their faith and their expectation is for a life of blessings and joy and hope and fulfillment. But what if it isn’t?

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Those of you who were here last week heard me go on about how demon possession was an antiquated idea. Whether you agreed with me or not I came down pretty strong that explaining illnesses by attributing them to demonic possession was a concept from a culture that didn’t understand all we know now. I basically said the bible was wrong. Was that brave or foolhardy? I don’t really know.

But as I was preparing this week’s service I saw that the gospel reading was Mark 1:29-39 which is a story about Jesus healing the sick and in particular casting out demons from people.

So, who says God doesn’t have a sense of humour?

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Mark 1:21-28

As I prepared today’s message I became very aware how different the world Jesus lived in is to the world we live in today.

In the 2,000 years since Jesus lived our understanding of so many things has grown and grown and grown.

We now know the earth revolves around the sun and the sun is a fairly insignificant star in an ever-expanding universe.

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John 1:43-51

Many years ago, our daughter Kelly and I attended the funeral of my sister-in-law’s father. during the service the priest mentioned that he was the great grandfather of George, Charles and Douglas, to which Kelly jokingly said, “who the hell is Charles?” because Charles had always been and continues to this day as Charlie. It’s just a name but those who knew him, knew what to call him.

In today’s reading we have a disciple called Nathanael and I ask “who the hell is Nathanael?”

We know precious little about him including his name. He is believed to have also been called Thaddeus. Some biblical scholars say he was known as Jude or Judas. In john’s gospel he is called Nathanael. It appears we know so little about him we can’t even get his name right.

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