The coolest trees in the world: a picture of faith from creation

These are Redwoods.




Grizzly Giant, Marposa, Yosemite

I love them. This one's called the Grizzly Giant, it's the 25th biggest sequoia in the world. 64m tall and 28m around, it's 3.5 times taller than my school ,which is a substantial 5 storey building. I took this picture in Yosemite National Park, California, which was a real privilege to visit. I you're in the area, you just must go.


Of course, that's a Giant Redwood (Sequioadendron Giganteum) which are the biggest trees in the world in terms of total volume and mass. Sadly, they have rather fragile tops which tend to break off after a thousand years or so. This leaves the mantle of tallest tree to their cousins, the Coast Redwoods (Sequoia Sempervirens). Oddly, despite being called Sempervirens (ever-living) it generally only lives up to 1800 years, whereas the Giant Redwood often gets well over 2700 years old. Some of those trees were already 700 years old at the birth of Christ!




'Giant Tree.' No kidding.

This is Victoria and I at the foot of the unimaginatively titled 'Giant Tree' in Redwood State Park, Northern California, home of hundreds of Coast Redwoods. It was near there that they filmed the Endor scenes in Return of the Jedi. You don't need special effects around there, it's an alien environment already.


This tree would tower over the Grizzly Giant; it's 109m  tall! 6 times taller than my school! Wandering around Redwood Park is an awesome and eerie experience; hundreds of these massive trunks shootiog straight up into the air. The dense canopy 300 feet up keeps much of the light from getting through, so while it's quite light enough to see and trek about, there aren't many other trees about, just these humongous long lived statuesque beauties rising straight out of the ground. It's 40 metres or more until you get to the first branches, so the trucks are left to impress.

A Grove of Giant Redwoods in Mariposa, Yosemite

Giant Redwoods grow a little differently. Rather than dominating an area they grow in groves of a few trees clustered together, but like the Coast Redwood, they never grow alone. This is all down to the incredible way they are rooted.


You would expect, perhaps, that such massive trees have very deep roots shooting deep into the earth, possibly tied to the very bedrock itself. Some kind of super-root must be necessary to keep these towering trees up, surely?


Well, you're not wrong, but it's not what you'd expect. The roots of these arboreal legends go down a mere 6 feet.

SIX FEET!!!!!

Surely that's not enough to hold up these forest giants? Well, it certainly wouldn't be, but their roots, while they down go down very far, do go out! Not only that, they grasp hold of one another. Theses magnificent creations could not stand on their own, but weather the storms of this world by holding each other up, leaning on each other for support and stability.

What a picture of fellowship. I was reminded of this recently looking at Mark Chapter 6, when Jesus send out the disciples for the first time. He doesn't let them take much stuff to support themselves with, no food, no spare clothes, just a staff, however he does give them one important thing: each other. He sends them out in pairs. I take this to mean that we are to be there for one another, that God doesn't expect us to perform miracles by ourselves, that we can achieve so much more with each other than alone.
The other cool thing about Redwoods is their response to fire; they need it. They are largely impervious to fire, one of very few non-flammable woods. When the Great Fire of San Francisco caused devastation in 1906 the damage was abruptly halted when the flames reached a district made of Redwood lumber. Forest fires rarely damage Redwoods but do thin-out competing species, leaving space and nutrients for the Redwoods. Beyond this, the seeds are released from the cones by high temperatures, so any forest fire releases thousands of new seeds to help the next generation start their incredible growth.

Cool trees, and beautiful too. Go see 'em.

Dude, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wave!!

My small group from Church have just finished an amazing study series. We've been watching the DVD of 'The Reason for God' by Tim Keller. The book is great and I heartily recommend it to anyone looking into the common questions people have about Christianity, but the DVD series is a little different. We've watched a group of non-Christians putting their thoughts to each other and to Dr Keller and exploring the arguments for and agaist different aspects of Christianity: is the church full of hypocrites, how can a loving God send people to hell etc. It's really opened our eyes to the types of objections people out there in the world will have to our faith, but more that that, it has helped us work out what we really think or our own faiths. I reccomaned it to any small group leaders looking for discussion points.

Anyway, enough about that. Dr Keller seems to have a good enough reputation and enough sales without me plugging his wares. I wanted to share one of the visions of God we found useful during our discussions.

Mrs D and I were lucky enough to be in Hawaii a few years ago. We had a fabulous time there and managed to cross of one of our lifetime ambitions: we went surfing. We'd done a little before on the same trip and had managed to stand up and ride some waves in to shore, but only inside the break, on waves which had already crested. By all accounts,  riding the bigger waves outside the break is much more thrilling, but rather harder to do, so to help us make progress, we had another lesson with a local instructor, Dave.

Dave was very cool. He looked and sounded like a regular chap, he wasn't a stereotypical surfer dude, but his attitude to life was very laid back. He was one satisfied and chilled out man, and why wouldn't he be? He spent his days cycling and surfing along Hawaii's North Shore.

Dave ran us through the tips for getting up beyond the break. It seemed to come down to choosing the right wave, timing and effort. The first two he would take care of, the latter was up to us. Forewarned, we set out.

The break Dave had chosen was not too far out to sea, but it was breaking over some nasty looking shallow rocks. There were places where falling off and getting smashed down would be seriously bad news. We were going to need to be careful. Thankfully Dave knew the spots to look out for.

We hung out on our boards at the end of a small line of surfers, waiting for a wave big enough to be worth riding but small enough to not kill us. A few of the guys in the line caught some bigger waves and made it look easy; some missed waves altogether, and the odd one got chewed up by the Pacific rollers only to emerge smiling, ready for another go. We started to get both keen and anxious.

I was first to go. Dave told me to get ready, he could see the right wave coming in. I turned to look, to see what I'd be riding, but Dave told me off. "I'll time the wave, buddy, you just paddle hard when I say." He was right, I just didn't have the skill yet to know when to go. We'd seen plenty of guys in the line going to late and just slipping off the back of the wave, if I wanted to catch this one I would have to trust Dave.

Suddenly our even-tempered surf instructor bellowed at me. "Paddle!!! Go for it." He yelled; I paddled. I felt the wave build around me. Lying on the board,  I was now facing downhill and rushing towards the rocks below. There were lots of them, and they looked big and sharp. I guess Dave sensed my fear, he must have seen my paddling slow down, and he knew as well as I did what was below me. He also knew that if I really committed, I'd be up, safe and enjoying a wild ride. He tried to spur me on again...

"Come on Rob! Give it!!!!"

I gave it everything I had. I cleared the rocks, but as I cleared them and went to stand up I mistimed my move and wiped out. I went over, but for the briefest fraction of a second I was on that board and riding. I knew what Dave knew, what he wanted me to feel.

I didn't get up that day. Mrs D did, she's a natural, but even so, not every time. We spent an hour paddling hard, trusting Dave and falling in. It was exhausting and exhilarating, and for me at least, very frustrating. When we staggered onto the beach we vowed to go again.

Three days later we got up at sunrise on our fourth wedding anniversary and rented boards in Waikiki, on the South Shore. I suppose the waves were a little smaller and there were certainly fewer rocks, but that day we both made it up onto our boards. When I was finally riding a wave in to shore, staring at Honolulu rushing towards me, I knew Dave would have been proud.

Dave still comes to mind when I hear people talk about God being demanding, when I hear  confusion or anger about all those instructions in the bible, all those commandments. I remember Dave yelling at me, not in anger, not because I was breaking the surfing rules and that made him cross, but because he knew best. He knew when I needed to paddle. He knew the dangers. Most of all he knew how awesome it is to ride along on the energy of creation, and his instructions were all he had to help me feel it too. He couldn't paddle for me, I had to do it myself. Those shouted commands were for my benefit, laid out by someone I had to trust because in that moment, he knew best.  When I look at God's commandments, especially the ones I don't understand, it helps me to remember that He DOES understand, and he's telling me out of love, to help me avoid the rocks below, to help me enjoy the rush of working with Him.


There comes a time when you just have to trust.

Things I wish I'd known

I was wondering yesterday, what did I wish people had told me at the beginning of my Christian faith? Anyone out there with any thoughts, please let me know. I'd be keen to see a 'Christianity for Dummies' guide, although I'm sure there already is one.

*Pause while Rob Googles....*

Yes, there is. Also a raft of sites that claim Christianity is FOR dummies. Oh dear.

Anyway, what do we wish people had told us? What would we go back and tell ourselves?

In many ways this is a poignant question for me as this is my second go at Christianity, having met Jesus as a teenager but run away from it all on a gap year. I have a pretty firm grasp of some of the changes there have been in my Christianity between then and now that make it, for the moment at least, a more vibrant and viable faith.

I'll put them up later this week, I just wondered what you all thought first.

Please comment.

The Transfiguration: a sermon

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to preach to a small local congregation. I was given the topic of 'The Transfiguration' from Mark9. It was a real treat to be invited and I hope to go back. Anyway, here's what I said (or thereabouts...)

Mark 9:2-10

New International Version (NIV)

The Transfiguration

 2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

 5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

 7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

I can’t say I was thrilled when I was asked to speak on the transfiguration. It had never struck me as a meaty bit of bible, really.  I like those bits where Jesus says something controversial, and with clear life applications. I suppose I always wondered what the point of this is. It’s nice that God says “This is my Son,” but I already knew that, and I’m pretty sure Jesus did too. This passage had never really spoken to me, either about God or about me. Well, let me tell you, there’s plenty going on here, and some lessons for all of us. We’re going to look at them going up the mountain, what happens up there, and them coming down the mountain.

So, the passage opens with “six days later.” Two thoughts occur to me here. Six days after what? What had just happened. Mark’s putting these events in a context, telling us that they came JUST AFTER something else. Look over the page in your bible and you see what’s happened in Mark 8. The headlines in my bible actually do a pretty good job of summarising it. Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus predicts his death, the way of the cross. The disciples has realised that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. Then he tells them that he is going to die and they are going to suffer. Pretty big news. They sit with that for a week or so. I don’t think Mark is telling us that this is exactly six days later, just not long. That six days IS significant though, and that’s my second thought. After six days, we have a Sabbath. After some big news, Jesus calls them away, up a mountain, to be with him.

Lent stared last Wednesday, and it’s a great time to reset spiritual disciplines that have fallen by the wayside. I don’t know what you’re thinking of giving up or taking up for lent. There are lots of good ideas and that’s not what I’m here to talk about today, but there is one thing I want to ask. How’s your Sabbath? Ours is ok, but it could be better, and I think we’ll take lent as an opportunity to invest in Sabbathing properly. I think I've been guilty of not taking it very seriously at times, but when you look at the old testament and all those laws, there only seem to be one or two that God really bangs on about. Idols (He really hate idolatry) and keeping the Sabbath. You just can’t underestimate how important God takes the Sabbath. Not just ‘not-working,’ although that’s very important, but retreating from the day-to-day world to just be with Him. Even if that day-to-day world is pretty holy. Look at what Jesus and the disciples had been up to: feeding 4000, preaching and healing. And that’s just Mark8! Still, in the midst of this, Jesus calls these guys aside and says, stop, come away with me. Are you heeding the call of God to be with Him, to be still?

Anyway, these guys are. That’s one thing they get right in this story. They listen and they go up the mountain with Jesus, and when they get there they are just blown away! He starts glowing! These guys are going to be seriously impressed. They know this is the presence of God! They aren’t going to miss the comparison with Moses in Exodus 34, you know, with Moses covering his face with a veil because the Glory of the Lord is literally shining from him. That couldn’t miss it, the clues are all there. Not only are they up a mountain, just like Moses, but Moses is there. And Elijah too! This is the fulfilment of major prophecy. Lets look quickly at Malachi 3 and 4. Wow. This is as big to them as the second coming would be for us! Just last week they had recognised that Jesus is the Messiah, and now they see him transfigured and looking all ‘divine’ and Moses and Elijah show up to confirm it!

At this point they get scared, I guess they feel out of control, and they start looking for practical stuff to do. Peter, for some reason, wants to put up tents. Now, I could do you ten minutes on tents and why peter might want to do that. For Jews at the time, that’s where the presence of God goes: in a tent. Why 3 and not 1 I’m less sure, but in his fear, looking to help out and muck in, Peter gets it wrong. You can see why. Surely, this is as good as it gets. First, there’s the white clothes, then this holy cloud which the KNOW is the presence of God, and then Moses and Elijah. WOW!! Lets hang on to this, it’s never going to get any better than this. Well, someone should have had a word with Peter about God. Admittedly, he had already blown Peter’s expectations out of the water, but then it gets EVEN BETTER.

God Speaks.

To them.

Would we do any better? Would we realise that God has brought us all this way. The presence of God is there. We are so close to Jesus it’s untrue. Would we be asking the right question: What does god want to say to me? Surely that’s what the disciples should have been looking for, some revelation.

The good news is that even though they’ve missed the point, God speaks anyway.

This only happens twice in Mark, here and at Jesus’ baptism. It’s similar script. Last time it was “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” He was talking to Jesus. Now it’s for the disciples. It’s for us. : “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

I don’t want to give you any false impressions of how educated I am. I have frankly little Latin and less Greek, but I know someone who does know Greek. In the original Greek that’s not just ‘Listen” but more accurately “listen and keep listening to Him.”

How often does God speak to you? Me, well, not often. Let me tell you about my friend Jo. God speaks to her all the time. Generally stuff like : go and talk to that man on the bus about me. Not stuff I would necessarily want to hear all that much. I think she hears from God so much because she spends so much time listening to Him. She prays a lot. She reads her bible a lot. In the context of today’s story, she goes up the mountain a lot. I guess that’s something I can learn from this. If I want to hear more from God, I need to do the legwork.

This command, “Listen to Him.” It’s not like previous commands. There’s no list of do’s and don’ts. That’s what used to happen. That’s what Moses and Elijah represent, the laws and the prophets. Specific commands from God. That’s ended. Jesus is the fulfilment of that Old Testament way of doing business with God. Now we are to listen to Jesus, and keep listening to him. This section is one of the passages that underpins Christianity as we see it. It’s where Jesus’ divinity is revealed, and that salvation comes not from a list of laws, but from relationship with Him. It must be a relationship, as we are to keep listening to him. Along with other fundamentals of the faith, like loving God and talking to Him (as we would call praying), listening to someone is a hallmark of relationship. I can tell you, my relationship with my wife takes a noticeable step backwards whenever one of us feels the other isn’t listening!

One more thing before we make our descent. I don’t know why Peter was so keen to put up shelters. I guess we’ll never know, at least, not for a long time to come, but I do have a theory. He said that it was “good for them to be there.” Was he trying to cling on to a good thing? Trying to preserve a moment that was supposed to come but then pass? It’s important to follow God’s calling, and so rewarding when you do. Look at these guys; Jesus called them up that mountain and when they went they met two of their all-time Old Testament heroes, their Messiah started glowing and the Lord of the universe spoke to them. Awesome! And yet… it wasn’t for always. They had been so right to follow Jesus up the mountain, but calling can shift and change. They we called next to get on with a whole ministry, to follow their Lord to the grave and beyond, to start a world changing religion, revealing the truth to all nations. God had even bigger plans for them, but to access them they had to go down the mountain. They had to abandon the ultimate holy-huddle. I’m sure it was good up there, but there was at time to stay and a time to move on.

And then, they come down the mountain. They get a command, and it’s not the one I’d have been expecting…

‘Tell everyone, this is HUGE!”

Nope. Tell no-one. Not yet.

The world wasn’t ready for this. The disciples weren’t ready for this. None of this would make sense until they were in that intimate relationship with God themselves, after Pentecost when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. THAT Peter wasn’t missing the point, oh no, he was on fire! I suppose that’s one of the big points of this passage. Meeting Jesus, meeting God is awesome, but it’s not enough. You have to walk with Him, day to day, and you have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then, and only then, will you see the power of God at work.

Is that message for us, tell no one? I don’t think so. Lets look at the last instruction Jesus gives in Mark 16…

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

That seems pretty clear to me, but is the subject of some other sermon, some other time.

What questions are there for us here? I would suggest the following:

-are we doing what we’re told with our revelation of God?

-go back to the beginning. What does this passage tell us.  Is it still pointless?

- are you following your calling? Has it changed.

Above all, get space, seek God, do your Sabbath. When you do, expect God to blow your mind, even when he already has. He won’t every time. They didn’t have encounters like this every mountain they went up, but don’t put God in a box.

Progress and worship; David, Michal and me.

On becoming nicer...

 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart. 2 Samuel 6, v16.


So I was finally getting around to some bible time when I got home from work today when this leapt out at me. It's a shame it's taken me so long; it must be four weeks or more since a great 'School of Theology' lecture at St Georges church Leeds inspired me to sit and read the history books in big chunks, to treat them like a novel. In just a couple of sittings I am all the way through Saul and Goliath and getting into the highs and lows of David's reign, and rediscovering some of the wonderful narrative in the bible. In the space of two pages David moves from this seemingly carefree joyous moment, abandoned to God and free to express himself, to staying home from the wars while someone else does his dirty work and getting himself into some serous hot water with Bathsheba, surely the lowest low of his career. God must have spent those years pretty exasperated; how can a guy with such incredible potential, so devoted to Him in love and capably leading His kingdom screw it up so badly, so often. It gives me hope for my relationship with God. If David can stay connected through all that sin, how much more will I, living my life with Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. That said, David wasn't without guidance, he had prohets like Samuel and Nathan keeping him honest. I guess we could all use someone to speak hard and useful truths to us now and then. I wonder who my Nathans are? Who are yours?


Anyway, the piece of the passage that jumped out at me was this bit about Michal despising David when she saw him dancing for God. It reminded me of when I was first a Christian. I used to really struggle to connect with God on an emotional level during worship at church. It didn't help that I'm a terrible singer and I struggled to accept that the noise I made was a joyful sound to God. I suppose that it was early on in my walk with God and naturally any relationship takes time to deepen. Anyway, there I was, singing in church but not feeling much. I distinctly remember resenting people around me who seemed to be having a much better time than me. It just wasn't fair, they were getting so much more out of it! Why wasn't God lighting ME up like he was them! What were they doing with their hands in the air? Didn't they know that looked weird?


I haven't thought about that for a long time. I don't remember it passing, but it did, and years go. I don't always feel like I'm immediately bathed in a warm glow of Holy Spiritness every time sing; that's not what I'm saying, but my attitude to worship has totally shifted. I'm now more often than not to be found with my hands in the air; I still wonder if I look silly but I'm past caring. More often than not, I do feel connected to God when I worship Him, but I have learned to worship with sincerity, with effort and in truth, whatever I feel. I finally believe that it's about Him and not me. God has begun a renewing of my mind, and this reading reminded me of how far I've come as well as giving me hope for the rest of what lies ahead. I know there's plenty of work for God still to do on me, but this afternoon's reflection on the progress so far has been thoroughly uplifting. Cheers, Lord!

After the rain has fallen...

So What?...

That's the question, isn't it? Yesterday, literally so. My incisive and wonderful wife asked, having had a such a fabulous time with God over the Romania trip and at New Wine, what was going to come from it? What was I going to do or be different?

Some of what God was going to do with me happened very early on. Driving in to Hunedoara from Cluj on the coach we saw a lot of poverty, alongside staggering wealth. There were so many people clearly not getting what they needed; their clothes and houses were not fit for purpose; their country had failed them.
I felt so much pity for them, my heart really broke. That was all me. What I felt God do was pull me up short, step in and give me some perspective. I had to stop judging them by my comfortable standards. The biggest issue in life isn't material poverty, but spiritual poverty, and there's just no way to see that from a bus. How dare I assume that these people were any worse off than the people around me in Leeds. God took that opportunity to break my heart again for those around me in Leeds who don't have the wonderful freedom in Christ that I have found. It crystallised when I saw a friend's t-shirt which read 'Friends don't let friends go to Hell.' I felt quite convicted of a lack of action on my part. Going to Romania was, first and foremost, hopefully going to radically change my approach to life in Leeds.

Let me be clear, I'm not about to start bashing my chums with bibles or shouting at people in Briggate, that's just not useful. I'd surely and swiftly end up with no friends at all, and that's not helping them or me. I don't think I've been shy about sharing my faith, either. I just remember this from a sermon years ago; before you talk to your friends about God, talk to God about your friends. My prayers for my friends and family have been sporadic and have lacked real faith. We happily sing that 'Our God Saves' but I'm not sure that I really believed that any of my friends would ever find God. I have to find a way to have more faith. After all, the wonderful God I worship found a way to reach me, and a not long after found a way to reach my wife, and our very relationship had been founded on a deeply shared antipathy to God and the church. I am praying now for my friends, and for more faith that God will find a way to reach them and hopefully use me in reaching them. My sermon in Romania talked about the two greatest commandments being to love God and love our neighbour. If we are to truly love our neighbour, what more could we wish for them than a fulfilled life in relationship with their creator.

What else then? What other changes has Romania brought about in me? Well, my Mom summed up a lot of it when I got back. She asked what I'd been up to. I told here we'd been cleaning the city and picking up litter in the morning and running bible classes and summer school for kids in the afternoon. She quickly and accurately pointed out that, as admirable as that all was, you didn't have to go to Romania to do that. There are plenty of opportunities to get stuck in over here. One such really simple and easy way to make a difference is St Georges' community week. This runs a few times a year, always during school holidays and always has lots of opportunities to help out in the local area around the church; doing up peoples' gardens, cleaning flats, decorating etc. There's always a kids' club during the week. There is always a team who wander the neighbourhood and ask people if there's anything we can pray about for them. Not evangelistic door knocking, just asking and serving.  I realised that I'd always been too hesitant to get involved in community week. I am a busy guy, my holiday is precious to me. Work is hard, I need my rest. I do my bit for the church already, surely I do enough? Can someone explain to me what exactly 'doing enough for God is?' I have been just a bit too selfish in that area, and I resolved in Romania to put much more effort into Community week whenever it happens.

Oh, there are tons of other things too, too many to get into in real depth now. I really enjoyed preaching; lots of people told me how much what I said connected with them. I have generally managed to be too proud about that and give God the glory, but I did enjoy doing it and will look for further opportunities to preach where I can. It was great to step out in faith and feel God catch me when I landed. I really noticed how close I felt to God, and it can't be a coincidence that that happened when I was getting quality time in with him every day. Fellowship with a room-full of men had a wonderful dynamic and I should invest a bit more of myself in the men's stuff at church. Volleyball is an underrated and underplayed sport. The list of lessons goes on. Enough. Farewell, and I'll write again soon. Perhaps I could aim for monthly.

My first sermon: a simple faith.

Well, blogfans, I've been asked to give a sermon on the upcoming church mission to Huenadoara, Romania. It's a tremendous honour and I really want to do it well. I'm trying to avoid the temptation to cram every point I've ever wanted to make in a sermon and to just keep it really simple. I also need to allow for the fact that I'll be translated on the spot, so rather than talk in the convoluted, run-on sentences I am sadly rather prone to, I need to shorten my style and talk in more simple, concise chunks. For this reason, I thought it best to write it out in full before I go. I've been mulling ideas for a week, but it's now Wednesday the 20th July and I'm due to preach THIS SUNDAY AM!! So, it's time to get it properly done. I thought this might be a useful forum for it, not only so that I have access to it once I get there, but also that some of you might be able to help when I wander off track in my theological rambling or just generally don't make sense. Please post back with suggestions.


Here's the key bit from the passage  we'll hear at the beginning. The full text is Mathew 22: 15-40.
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"  Jesus replied, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:36-40 NIV).




Assume here I'll throw in some short cheery preamble. Hello, it's lovely to be here, my name's Rob, I lead a small group at St Georges' church Leeds etc


It's a real privilege to be here this morning, especially because I so very nearly wasn't. Let me tell you the story of how I came to know Jesus, lost him and finally rediscovered him at the centre of a very simple faith. I’d like to show you today what I believe is the heart of the Christian faith, and is certainly at the centre of how I live my life with and for Jesus Christ.


I was not bought up as a Christian; I 1st gave my life to God as a teenager. My faith grew from regular church attendance and great fellowship with other young people at church, but I always struggled with the big questions within Christianity: does everyone who doesn't believe really go to Hell, how does that display God's love? Why is there so much suffering in the world? I believe in science and all the claims it makes about evolution and the beginning of the universe; how do I make that fit alongside my deep trust in the bible and the very different version of creation I see there, which I also believe?


There were just so many questions. In the end, that was a large part of what drove me away from my faith, from the God who made and loves me. Aged 19, unable to maintain a belief in a God that confused me, I abandoned any attempt to follow him. I deliberately went the other way, and decided that if God didn't make sense, then I didn't want to know Him or know about Him. I was going to live my life for me and follow my own rules.


As you can imagine, that didn’t go very well. I spent about 10 years looking for happiness everywhere but with God, and there are scores of stories I could tell you about that. It’s enough to say that they didn’t work, and they left me looking again at the faith I had abandoned. Sadly, all the questions that had driven me from it were still there. I discussed them with friends who had a great in-depth knowledge of this very weighty book (hold up bible) and who had studied the writings of many theological scholars. They were wise men and women who gave me the best answers they had, but somehow they were not good enough for me.


Then I met Sarah, a good friend of my wife, who had the most simple faith of anyone I had ever met. She said she knew God loved her and that Jesus had died for her, and that her job now was to love God and everyone else in the world. That incredible view shook my world, I had no idea that following Jesus could be reduced to such basic terms, so easy to wrap your head around! What I didn’t know at that time is that this message is exactly echoed by Jesus. That simple statement opened my eyes, and it was at her funeral, just a few short days after I first heard this radically simple gospel, that I finally opened my heart and let my saviour in. I just asked Him, if He was really there, to come and and show himself to me, and He did. He blew me away! I felt the love and grace and mercy of Jesus and I knew I had to say yes to Him. I gave my life back to Him right there. What's funny is, I still had all the questions I had always had, I just suddenly looked at them from the other side. As important as they were, I wasn't going to let them get in the way of this. To this day, I trust God that there are answers to all of those big questions, I try to work some of them out as best I can and I don't worry too much about them. One day, all will be revealed.


Let us look again at the passage. What’s going on here? It’s one of those parts of the gospels where the Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus, to trick him into saying something they can use against him. The gospels are full of people asking Jesus questions, and I can't think of many occasions where he gives a direct answer. He often tells parables, stories to help people think their own way around it. He must have thought this question was too important to leave people to get wrong. He even makes the statement, "all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." He could not have stated more clearly that these 2 principles were at the heart of what He believed. Think of all those people I spoke to who gave me answers to the many complex questions in this big book. They could have reduced it to just those two points, those four clear sentences. Love God. Love everyone.


I suppose the next question that occurs to me is ‘How?’ How does Jesus want me to love God, how does he want me to love my neighbour? Who is my neighbour? Let’s look at those three questions in turn.


How should I love God? That’s a really hard question. Does that just mean think nice thoughts about Him? ‘Oh, how lovely is God, I really like Him?’ I don’t think so. When I’m trying to answer this question, I like to compare loving God with loving my wife. After all, she’s there, she’s tangible, she lets me know on a regular basis if I am loving her well, or not so well. It’s no use to her me just thinking nice thoughts about her in my head. I do do this of course, all the time. She is often on my mind, but if that were all I did, well, I don’t think my wife would be very happy with me. She wouldn't feel very loved.  So, what DO I do? For a start, I TELL her I love her. Everyday, at least once a day. I tell her WHY I love her, what is it today that makes me especially fond of her. How proud I am of how well she does at work, how I appreciate how carefully and usefully she manages our finances, how beautiful she is, how kind and considerate she is to others, how grateful I am that she made my favorite sandwiches for my lunch. I have found that such really specific praise is highly valued, and when she's happy, I'm happy.


I must go further than that in loving my wife. Talk is all well and good, but we all know that you have to back up your words with actions. It’s no good to just ‘talk-the-talk’, you have to ‘walk-the-walk.’ Another way I can show my wife I love her is to do things which I know please her, things which she has told me she appreciates. When my alarm goes off in the morning I turn it off at the first ring and sneak out of the room, so that I don’t disturb her. I am responsible for taking care of our car, so I do that to the best of my ability so that she doesn't have to worry about it. I try to cook wonderful food for us, choosing recipes and ingredients that I know she is fond of. It changes over time as well. This month I am trying to remember to hang my coat up and not leave it on the back of a kitchen chair when I come home from work. There must be hundreds of things, small and large, that I know bring her joy, so I do as many as I can. By choosing to do things that she likes, not always what I want to do, I know she knows that when I say I love her, it’s not just words; she can trust that I really mean it. That store of memories of all the little acts of love really helps  on the very rare occasion that I get it wrong and upset her.


Finally, our relationship is at the strongest when we spend a lot of time together. You can imagine how hard it is for us to be apart while I’m over here. Every week we find several times to be together, some ‘marriage time.’ Time to eat together and talk over our days, to do something fun together, maybe go running or for a walk, to watch a movie. Doing that, every week, for nearly nine years, has helped us to really get to know each other. And, because we really know each other, it makes it easier to show each other that love; to know the right words to say, the right things to do.


I would suggest that there are key lessons here for us to work out how to love God. In fact, I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think one of the reasons God gave us the wonderful gift of marriage was to get a feel for how to love in a genuine intimate way. At it's best, marriage is a wonderful glimpse of the tender and close relationship we can find with the One who made us. These ways to love a husband or wife are ways we can love God. Let's a have a look at how we can apply these lessons to our spiritual life.

One; tell Him you love Him, just like I do with Victoria. Talk to him, sing to him. In prayer, praise and worship let him know all the wonderful things about him that you love. Sing of his might in creating and sustaining the universe. Rejoice out loud at the wonder in your heart that the Son of God came and died for you. Not because he needs it, but because He deserves it, because real love does not hide itself. I know I always feel so much more connected to God when I can open up in heartfelt praise.

Two; spend time with Him.  Chat to him. As St Paul says, pray without ceasing. Pray as you go about your daily life. Not only that, find some ‘marriage time’ for God. Time to tell Him what’s really on your heart, and listen to what He might have to say to you. Read his word, look for the meaning He brings to you from within it. Sit quietly in His presence and just be with Him. I have found that the times I have really devoted to sitting with God have been so productive, and I strive to have the discipline to do it more often.  If you're going to have a relationship worth having, you just have to invest time in it, to cultivate it. I would suggest that no relationship you are ever going to have is more important than the one you share with your creator.

Three; do the things you know He loves. Here at least, he’s made it very easy. There are so many commandments. Tithe your money, keep the Sabbath and so on. So many of His commandments can be summed up in one though. ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Honour you parents? If you are loving everyone, surely your parents will be high on the list of people you love! Do not kill? How can you kill someone you love? Give to the poor? Do not judge others? So many of the ways we are asked to behave towards each other do not need further explanation than this; simply ‘love.’


Finally, let's be clear about who we are to love. Jesus referred to that famous commandment from Leviticus,  'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There's clearly another whole sermon in there, isn't there. I'm sure you've heard it before. In the book of Luke, just after we read Jesus giving these two as the most important commandment, someone with a bit of sense speaks up. 'Who is my neighbour?' they ask. Jesus tells the famous story of the Good Samaritan. Who is our neighbour? Not just people of the same faith as us, from the same place as us, but anyone in need. I'll leave you today with that thought; 'Who do I need to be a better neighbour to?' Let God prompt you.


One final thought. What Jesus didn’t say was “These are the only two commandments.” No, he said that the others 'hang' on these two. All those other instructions in the bible still apply, and we all need to work out what that means to us. All I'm suggesting to you today, is that you shouldn't let your questions get in the way of the best thing that ever happened to you, and you shouldn't let them stop you doing the best you can with those simple instructions. Love God, love everyone. I'm not saying they are easy instructions; I know i get both of them wrong in some way most days. Thankfully, we have a God of mercy, who readily forgives us when we ask. So get out there, love more, love God, love everyone, get it wrong and have another go. Just keep loving!



God bless you all.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think. It's definitely a first draft, so I'd gladly receive any comments. I'll try and post more blogs throughout the mission, let you know what it's like out there and what we're up to, and I promise they'll be way shorter than this!

Cheers,

Rob