This Sunday we’ll have an extra-special service in the evening. First of all, it’s the first Sunday in the month, so it’s the Family Service…always a great time of fun, games, quizzes, songs and an important theme.

This Sunday, however, it’s also Mother’s Day, so it will be a special service because of that. And finally, it’s also the dedication of baby Grace, so that will be a really special part of the service.

Three special reasons to be there, but most of all, it will be special because God will be there, faithful to meet with His people as they gather in His name. Be there for 6 p.m.!

God is in the business of transforming people. No, He’s not a character from the film ‘Transformers.’ Based on the hugely popular cartoon and toy range from the 1980s, ‘Transformers’ revolves around a war between two sets of robots for supremacy on earth. Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots, who have travelled to earth to protect mankind from Megatron and his evil army of Decepticons. Meanwhile, young human Sam Witwicky buys his first car, which just happens to be Autobot Bumblebee, and soon finds himself embroiled in the battle to save the planet. These two tribes of ancient alien robots can shape-shift into items of our technology (thus spawning a whole range of toys to captivate children’s imaginations!) We all like the idea of transformation, but don’t always understand what spiritual transformation looks like.

Romans 6 shows us the shift in allegiance that Christ brings to our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin, but have a new master, a new allegiance. We died with Christ so that we may live with Him and for Him. We have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.

God’s purpose is not that we might be happy, that we might live successful lives in the way that we often define success (money, marriage, children, good jobs, good reputation etc.) It’s not that these things are wrong or that we shouldn’t aspire to them. It’s more that they are limited ambitions and aspirations. God’s purpose is outlined in Romans 8:29: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

God is transforming us so that the sin-stained image inherited as a consequence of Adam’s sin is replaced by the image of Christ, who lived a life of total obedience to God and therefore regained the true purpose for humanity. “We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18)

It’s a bit like a Rolf Harris picture, though. The artist used to entrance me on Saturday evenings, daubing paint on a canvas and asking us “Can you tell what it is yet?” His artwork appeared totally random, until suddenly the picture was revealed… looking effortlessly like the cartoon creature it was supposed to be representing.

God’s work in our lives can seem like ‘daubs of paint’, splashed randomly on. Tragedy comes and we don’t understand how that can fit in with His revelation that all things work together for the good of those who love God (Rom 8:28). The mundane continues, day by day, and we fail to see how this ‘great plan’ we have read about is being written in our lives. But even though we may not see the picture yet, the Great Artist is actually at work, painting the image of His Son, shaping our lives so that we become like Jesus. John says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)

We may not see His image clearly in our lives yet, but God is at work transforming us into that image. Man, made in the image of God, will again look like that. How amazing is that?!

Freedom is very much a popular topic of conversation, but Romans 6:15-23 has some interesting things to say about liberty. Paul talks here about if we are under grace, we are not under law: in other words, we can do what we want! Is the gospel adovcating anarchy?!

The freedom Paul talks about in this chapter of Romans is the freedom to choose. God has made us with free will, but there is no such things as rights without responsibilities. “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Rom 6:16) As Jesus so controversially taught, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34)

The freedom Jesus offers us is freedom to choose His way, rather than the way of sin. “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” (Rom 6:22) We have the choice now of living as a slave for God, loving Him and serving Him as a willing servant (rather like the Old Testament slave whose ear was pierced as a sign that he wanted to remain with his master even when he could have left him).

Augustine famously once said, “Love God and do what you want!” Although this might seem like licence to some and a recipe for disaster to others, if we truly love God, we will want to keep His commands and please Him. (John 15:10, 14, 17) We have a new allegiance, a new master, for there is no such thing as simply pleasing ourselves. We either serve God or we serve His enemy; there is no middle ground. We are either slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness (Romans 6:16)

God is in the business of transforming people into the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). Look at Jacob – ‘the deceiver’ (Gen 25:23-26), transformed into Israel – ‘he struggles with God’ (Gen 32:22-28), later referred to as ‘the upright one’, ‘Jeshurun’, in Is 44:1-2. This kind of inner transformation is brought about by God as we consistently choose the paths of righteousness over the ways of the world, as we follow Him daily, learning to offer ourselves to God (Rom 6:13). There is so much more to our lives than the mere collection of information; we are in the process of being transformed into the image of Christ, regaining that lost image of God which Adam first knew.

Dave preached tonight on the power of a testimony and how Jesus can change lives. Speaking from John 4:1-26 and 39-42, he talked about how there are no such things in life as coincidences, but rather there are divine appointments or ‘God-incidents’ where God moves in situations to work out His plans.

Jesus’s meeting with the Samaritan woman is one such example of this. It was very unlikely that a Jew should converse with a Samaritan and even more unlikely that a man would converse with a woman in the way that Jesus engaged this woman in conversation. He was careful, however, to do only what He saw His Father doing and to go only where He was supposed to go (see John 8:28) and in obedience, He gave us a model for how to live.

Jesus didn’t put rituals and traditions above the needs of people. He showed this woman compassion and kindness, not judging her lifestyle but speaking to her with kindness as well as truth. Truly, He came into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:17)

Jesus took our sins. When He was baptised, John the Baptist recognised His sinlessness and couldn’t quite grasp why He had come to him, but in that symbolic gesture, Jesus showed that He was willing to take our sins upon Himself and become the sacrifice for sin that God required. He took the punishment that should have been ours. He was the means by which God could blot out our transgressions and remember our sins no more (Is 43:25).

The Samaritan woman had known about God but needed to understand fully who He was. The others in the village – who had presumably previously shunned her, thus necessitating the trip to get water in the heat of the day – were intrigued by her testimony. They presumably saw more than words; they saw her changed lifestyle and were interested enough to want to find out more about Jesus themselves. Our testimony can be a powerful tool in the hand of God!

In addition to this, we also celebrated Ralph’s birthday!

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matt 7:13-14)

This is another of the paradoxes of the Christian life, that the way which seems the most open, comfortable and spacious is not the path we have to take. Just as a Sat-Nav doesn’t always get it right, so too we can’t always take the obvious paths in life if we want to arrive safely at heaven’s destination. The ‘default setting’ of mankind, corrupted by Adam’s sin, is the popular road that the New Living Version translates as the ‘highway to hell’.

Instead, as the Message version translate these verses, “the way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.” We can’t rely on “sure-fire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practised in your spare time”; rather, we have to understand that the only way to eternal life is to enter by the gate, Christ Himself (John 10:9); He is ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6) There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12); there is only one entrance.

In his book, ‘Celebration of Discipline’, RIchard Foster looks at some of the practices which we need to develop if we are to give our full attention to the cost of discipleship.

The inward disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation, and study in the Christian life can’t be avoided if we want to grow spiritually. These have to be done in secret and not for public acclamation or affirmation, as Jesus teaches clearly in Matthew 6. In that passage, Jesus shows and teaches us how to do something tangible in an invisible way in order to develop a visible relationship with an invisible God.

Similarly, the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service are key to any believer’s spiritual growth. We have to learn that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1 Tim 6:6) and whatever our personality type have to foster an attitude that seeks God in solitude and submission, learning to walk by faith, not by sight, learning that ‘this broken road prepares Your will for me’ (‘Walk by Faith’, Jeremy Camp). Service is our outward demonstration of faith (as James said, ‘faith without works is dead’ Js 2:26). We belong to a wider community of faith and serve God in our communities.

The corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration are things that are done together, in community, as a body, as ‘church’. When we confess our sins and failings to each other (see James 5:16), we cut down the pride that tries to make others believe we are better than we are and we put an end to the ‘stained glass masquerade’ (Casting Crowns) that so many of use to hide behind. Worship in a corporate sense is our response to God’s grace and love. Yes, it will often involve singing and celebration, dancing and praise, clapping and shouting, all those expressions of delight in God. But worship can also involve lament, tears, silence and repentance. Our services should be places where we learn more of the story of God and can grow in faith as we listen to His word and His Spirit.

We also should be waiting on God to listen for His guidance. Just as the Israelites were led in the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, so we too need to be led by God. We need to have a teachable spirit and a willingness to go where He commands: as Chris Tomlin puts it in the song ‘I Will Follow’:
“Where You go, I’ll go
Where You stay, I’ll stay
When You move, I’ll move; I will follow.”

The narrow road may not be the easiest to walk down. It may be full of pitfalls and potholes and we stumble along the way. We may have to walk in single file because of the narrowness of the way, but we walk also in community, holding each other’s hands, sure that, by God’s grace, the spacious destination of heaven is awaiting us when we complete the race.

During this Lenten period, we attended a concert reflecting on the Passion week in particular by Michael Card, an American songwriter and author http://www.michaelcard.com/ Michael Card has long been one of my favourite songwriters, combining depth of lyrics with a scholar’s grasp of the Bible and an ability to express truth through a variety of musical styles, and it was a privilege to again be able to listen and to reflect on the story of Easter.

I grew up, as mentioned before, learning about paradox first hand at university, having become a Christian the year before I left home, and Michael’s songs held me steady through the secular world of doubt and scorn. His commitment to truth and to community reflected my own beliefs. He wasn’t afraid of lament, pain and doubt, and I learned to sing the psalms (even the uncomfortable ones!) through many of his songs. A few years older than me, he wrote the lullabies I sang to my son when he was born. He’s even left-handed like I am!

So, last night, as a family we travelled to Hinckley in Leicestershire to a small United Reform Church to reflect on the Passion week. If anyone’s interested, the songs sung were:

* Only His Wounds
* Known by The Scars
* Ride on to Die
* How much more a servant could He be?
* A Better Freedom
* Come to the Table
* The Basin and the Towel
* In the Garden
* Why?
* The Death of A Son (Psalm 22)
* The Tears of the World
* Crown Him
* This Must Be The Lamb
* All that was lost
* Emmanuel
* Love Crucified Arose
* Only His Wounds (reprise)

Some of the things that stood out for me as we reflected on the life, death and resurrection of the Lord were the fact that our Lord truly is a servant – ‘the suffering servant’ described by Isaiah, conquering through weakness, triumphing through obedience, winning the battle at Gethsemane before the final war at Golgotha – and the fact that despite all He had taught them, no one really expected the resurrection – there was a ‘persistence of doubt’ among the followers of Christ that only the power of His Spirit could remove. May we find encouragement even in our own suffering, doubt and weakness, for when we are weak, then He is strong.