I was a very young Christian when I first heard the Michael Card album ‘Scandalon’ (still one of my all-time favourites) which introduced me to the Biblical notion that Jesus is ‘a stone that makes men stumble and a rock that makes them fall.’ (‘Scandalon’, quoting Isaiah 8:14, Rom 9:33, 1 Pet 2:8) I am profoundly grateful that I learned this lesson early on in my Christian pilgrimage, for it disabused me of any notion that Jesus is nice.

‘Nice’ is one of the most over-used words in the English language. I learned that Jesus is radical, counter-cultural, devotedly obedient, passionately loving and wholly committed to doing God’s will, but is not the nice, saccharine, tame, people-pleasing Messiah many would like Him to be.

Jesus offended many people, especially religious people who thought they’d got God in a nicely ornamented and contained box and who missed the point entirely as a result. He continues to offend people today, especially the churchgoers who think they are safe and secure in their religion, smug and self-righteous. To be honest, if Jesus doesn’t offend us, there is a problem. Grace is outrageous, as the parable Dave expounded last night shows us. Forgiveness is revolutionary. Mercy chops down pride at the roots and love is not our instinctive response to anything that threatens our independence and comfort. If we’re not offended by Jesus, we haven’t really encountered Him or haven’t fully understood His message.

There has been talk recently of Christian leaders renouncing the faith and in the midst of all this is a common theme: how do we respond to the tough questions of life?

Christianity is simple, but not easy. We don’t have satisfactory answers to many of life’s tough questions about sin, evil and suffering; the answers we have give us glimpses into God’s ways, but we cannot reduce God’s nature to a simplistic formula. We worship the all-mighty, all-loving God who is, nonetheless, a mystery to us in so many ways and it can feel like walking a tightrope at times as we we wrestle with the paradox of love and justice, mercy and judgment, sovereignty and free will. Paul says we know in part now (1 Cor 13:9) and accepting the limitations of our knowledge is not always easy.

Faith is not always about perfect, sunny days when everything in the garden is rosy. If we read the Bible, we find Jacob wrestling with God (Gen 32:22-32); we read Jeremiah’s laments and arguments with God (Jer 20:7-18); we find people who are fiercely honest and often confused, bewildered, hurt and angry with God, just as we are at times. None of these reactions precludes faith and an ongoing relationship with God. God can handle every question and every mood we throw at Him without them changing His love for us or altering His nature in any way.

If we are sincerely honest with God and willing to allow His Spirit to change us, the fact that we don’t have all the answers will ultimately not longer be a stumbling-block to us but simply another stone to climb over. Rock-climbing can become our favourite pastime, unbelievable though that sounds!

Dave spoke from Matt 20:1-16 tonight, a parable about a farmer who owned a vineyard and employed labourers to pick the grapes in the harvest. This is a parable which offends us deeply, for the workers who were employed late in the day ended up earning the same as those who had worked all day and we can easily identify with those first workers who were offended and angry with the farmer. To us, this parable seems unfair, reinforcing bad business practices and creating resentment among the workforce – and since Jesus specifically said the kingdom of heaven is like this, we wonder if this means there are no rewards for hard work in God’s kingdom and if we can trust God or if He is as fickle as the farmer.

The parable is really about provision (for a day’s work was necessary if the workers were going to eat) and about God’s amazing, outrageous grace. When we get what we deserve, that is justice – but is justice what we always need? None of us could ever deserve or earn God’s favour or love. When we don’t get what we deserve, that is mercy – and all of us need God’s mercy. When we get what we don’t deserve, however, that is grace, and this parable reminds us starkly of the nature of grace.

Most of us live with a tit-for-tat mentality until we experience God’s lavish grace for ourselves. We bring this mentality to our dealings with God, bargaining with him as the workers did with the farmer (who actually paid the earlier workers exactly what had been agreed, so they did not have any legitimate complaints about his justice.) This leads us to compare ourselves with others, resulting either in pride (feeling we are so much better than someone else) or in despair. We find it almost unbelievable that salvation is free and everyone – regardless of our efforts, temperaments, circumstances or personality – can receive salvation for free. We may pay lip service to this truth, but the resentment which colours our attitudes towards others often reveals the true depths of our hearts.

When we grasp the enormity of God’s grace, we won’t want to quibble with Him about how He treats other people. Instead, we will be overwhelmed by gratitude, immensely grateful for all He has given us. We have received the gift of inexhaustible love; we have been blessed in ways we can never fully comprehend. People overwhelmed by grace don’t complain; they simply respond in thankfulness and praise.

John spoke this morning at Cherry Tree Court about the greatest picnic ever, the feeding of the five thousand (recorded in all four gospels.) We know from John’s Gospel that a young boy offered his own food to Jesus when the disciples were debating where they could possibly get enough food (or money!) to feed the crowd (which numbered five thousand men, not counting women or children.) Jesus knew what He was going to do before He even spoke to the disciples about it and could obviously have used any means whatsoever to feed the crowd (after all, God had fed a nation for forty years by providing miraculous manna from heaven), but He chose to use someone who was prepared to give something to Him.

God can do so much with whatever we give Him. He is looking for people willing to give Him what they have got and then He can make our little into something amazing.

The picnic was unexpected to the rest of the people (who possibly had had no intention of staying all day listening to Jesus but who found that no one had ever spoken like Him and were fascinated by Him.) It was unusual, in that the five loaves and two fishes went far beyond normal picnic fare: everyone ate and was satisfied and there were twelve baskets of leftovers! It was unbelievable: a miracle being enacted in front of people’s very eyes!

It doesn’t matter what we have, how small or insignificant it seems to us. When we give it to God, He can do something unexpected, unusual and unbelievable with all we give Him too!

I’m reading a book called ‘He Loves Me’ by Wayne Jacobsen, kindly loaned to me by another Christian, and in the book, the author comments that many Christians seem to have a view of God like that of a child pulling petals off a daisy: ‘He loves me, he loves me not.’ We recognise that this age-old method of deciding if someone loves us or not is actually ridiculous, but for all that, we can go through life being unsure of God’s love for us as a constant. It’s easy enough to believe He loves us on the days when the sun is shining and all is going well in our lives, but when sorrow and confusion come into our lives, we can often wonder if God loves us then. Our view of God can be almost wholly dictated to by circumstances if we are not careful, and since circumstances change and fluctuate, our lives can be very volatile and decidedly mercurial, resulting in bitterness, unhappiness, unrealistic expectations and misery.

The Bible reassures us that God loves us all the time, even during those dark periods, and tells us that nothing will be able to separate us from His love. (Rom 8:31-39) The daisy-petal method of ascertaining God’s love may be flawed; the answer to the question is a resounding ‘He loves me!’

Knowing we are loved all the time is immensely liberating. It means we no longer serve God in order to win His favour and approval, fearful that if we don’t do X or Y, He will cast us away. It means we no longer manipulate people, desperate for their approval and love, because we operate from the security of being loved rather than needing their love to survive. It means we can walk through trials and sorrows, confident that even the most difficult circumstances will result in something positive and constructive (Rom 8:28). Being loved is the most important factor in a person’s life, and even if we have not known that love from parents, spouse, children or friends, we have never been unloved. God loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us so that we can be restored to that relationship with Him for which we were created. That’s good news indeed!

The Psalms are full of calls to worship God:

• ‘Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.’ (Ps 29:2)

• ‘Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.’ (Ps 99:5)

• ‘Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.’ (Ps 100:2)

• ‘With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng of worshippers I will praise him.’ (Ps 109:30)

Often, praise and worship are associated with songs, singing and music, and it’s always good to have that ‘new song’ to sing to the Lord (see Ps 33:3, Ps 40:3, Ps 96:1). I’m profoundly grateful to the many talented songwriters and performers who bring us new songs to cheer our spirits and to focus our attention on God… This week has been a bit like waiting for a bus (you wait ages and then two turn up at once!), since I’ve received two new CDs from favourite artists.

Rend Collective are well known for their anthemic songs and lively music and they have just brought out a children’s album called ‘Sparkle. Pop. Rampage.’ It’s trailed as a children’s album, but to be honest, there are their ordinary songs on there (‘My Lighthouse’, ‘True North’) and many of the songs just sound like Rend Collective to me, not necessarily exclusively for children! Certainly, the truths contained on the album apply as much to adults as to children. If you’re interested, you can listen to the songs on YouTube (click on the title to listen): ‘Jericho Song‘ is a typical anthem reminding us ‘strongholds crumble like castles of sand’ as we trust in our mighty God; ‘Feels Good’ reminds us of the importance of fellowship, how standing in harmony makes us stronger; ‘King of Me’ is a more typical children’s song, but who doesn’t still need reminding that my God is the king of the giants, the lions and the creatures of the deep? As Rend Collective remark, there is no ‘junior Holy Spirit’; we all need the same truths and we all need the same Holy Spirit, no matter what our age!

Aaron Shust is a songwriter whose songs have walked me through some of the most challenging periods of my life, so I have eagerly awaited his new album, ‘Nothing To Fear’. I’ve even seen the positive power of Facebook (rather than its destructive faces) in persuading the artist to make it possible to order the album directly and have it posted to the UK (most US artists mailing out to the US and Canada only.) There are some wonderful worship songs on this album, including the very lively ‘None Like You’ with its strong Messianic tones, and ‘More Than Welcome’ with its reminder of the deep, deep love of Jesus and the fact that ‘we are accepted; we are more than welcome here.’ ‘Your Word’ reminds us of the centrality of that word in leading and guiding us (based on Ps 119:105), ‘Savior of the World’ focuses our attention wholly on Jesus.

In the end, however, songs are simply a vehicle for worship and what matters is our heart attitude towards God, our willingness to acknowledge Him as Lord in every circumstance and to bow the knee before Him. Let’s worship God today as we join together and lift His name high.