Dave spoke this evening from Luke 2:41-50, reminding us that the presence and anointing of the Holy Spirit are essential to us on our Christian journey. In this passage, Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem assuming Jesus was with them, but although it only took them one day to realise He was absent, it took three days for them to find Him in the temple. We can easily simply assume the Holy Spirit is present with us, but it is easy for us to run ahead of Him or to lose the immediate sense of the presence of Jesus. When this happens, we will only find Him again by going back to the place where we last experienced Him.

We need to seek God’s presence rather than presume He is always happy with us, for Eph 4:30 reminds us that it is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit. He is likened to a dove, a bird which is sensitive, peaceful, quiet and easily disturbed. The Holy Spirit will not adapt to us; we have to adapt to Him and treat Him with dignity and respect.

Eph 4:31-32 shows us the things which grieve the Holy Spirit: bitterness, anger, rage. brawling and slander. It’s so easy to let bitterness creep in and to hold on to grudges, but when we do this, we give the enemy a foothold and grieve God’s Spirit. Ex 40:36-38 reminds us that the Israelites were led by the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They only moved when the cloud or pillar of fire moved. We need to be the same, being led by the Holy Spirit. Eph 5:10 reminds us we need to find out what pleases the Lord, and we do this by spending time with Him and adjusting our lifestyle so that it is in line with what God says. When God convicts us by His Spirit, we need to respond.

We need to be people who welcome the Holy Spirit, people who welcome Him as a friend and don’t ignore Him. He is our friend, our guide and our God. We simply can’t manage without Him.

John Brackenbury spoke this morning on perhaps one of the most famous and most loved verses in the Bible, Romans 8:28, which tells us that God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. God is working for our good in everything!

That begs the question, of course, as to what God’s purposes are. 1 John 3:8 tells us that ‘the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.‘ God in Christ has worked to defeat the enemy so that we may be saved and brought into a relationship with Him. This purpose has been God’s plan from before the beginning of time (2 Tim 1:9) and Christ is the fulfilment of the purpose of God. If we have been restored to a relationship with God, then Rom 8:28 applies to us.

God calls us all; His call goes to the ends of the earth (Is 45:22), a call that has been extended to Gentiles and Jews alike (Rom 9:24), but we need to respond to that call, all the while knowing that we did not ultimately choose God, but He chose us. (John 15:6)  Our calling has been planned by God, but the aim for us then is that we become like Christ (Rom 8:29) and live a life of love which is like God’s love (see 1 John 4:8-5:3)

Our love must therefore be…

1. reactionary (we love because God has first loved us, as John tells us in 1 John 4:19)
2. reflective (affecting our relationships with all people, for God loves all people)
3. responsible (for we are called to love as God loves, which means loving our enemies and blessing those who seek to harm us)
4. revolutionary (going above and beyond the ‘duty’ calls of love)
5. restorative (for Christ restored Peter even after his denials and shows us mercy and compassion, not judgment and condemnation)

Not everything that happens to us in life is good. When bad things happen, we can easily wonder where God is and why He has allowed these things into our lives. Job discovered that faith has to be tested, but the truth is that every single set of circumstances that conspire against us can be worked together for good by God. Paul is confident in saying we know this. We do not simply hope this is the case or imagine this to be true. Instead, we are aware of this truth and can trust God’s good plans for us even in the midst of difficulties (Jer 29:11). Our circumstances can be transformed by God, but even more amazing, we can be transformed by Him.

Today (17th March) is St Patrick’s Day. St Patrick is the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. He’s a reminder that one man can make a difference to an entire nation. St Patrick’s Day nowadays may be an excuse for many to be involved in drunken revelry, but the meaning behind the celebration of this day has lessons for us all. It’s not all about Guinness and shamrocks!

Patrick (probably living in the 5th century) was born in Britain, and aged 16 was taken from his father’s villa by Irish raiders and sold into slavery. He spent six bleak years in Ireland as a herdsman before escaping and returning to Britain. It may seem astonishing to us that after such an experience he would return to the land of his captivity, but following a vision calling him back there, he did return., It is another example to us of how God uses even misfortune and persecution to bring about His will; it’s doubtful that Patrick would have ever gone to Ireland of his own accord, but this series of circumstances led to his lifework.

Patrick was keenly aware of his lack of learning and struggled to believe God could use him, but he worked with zeal and fervour and saw many become Christians. He exercises a powerful ministry which saw many healed and even raised from the dead. As always, he demonstrated the truth that when we are weak, then God can be strong! (2 Cor 12:9, 1 Cor 2:1-5).

It’s easy for people to become legends and for the stories surrounding them to be embellished and for us therefore to doubt the veracity of these stories. The truth remains that Christianity was spread far and wide through the zeal of individuals and through the power of the Holy Spirit. These people’s zeal and surrender to God surely inspire us to greater service. Today, as we think of St Patrick, may we too know faithfulness, obedience and zeal and may we hear His voice calling us, confirming our calling and leading us to walk in the Spirit as Patrick did.

The Enormous Turnip is not one of the better-known fairytales; I only first encountered it when I was teaching French, as it had been translated into French as a resource for teaching younger children the vocabulary for vegetables and animals! This simply story is of a grandfather who plants a turnip (un navet, in French, for those who are interested!) which grows so large that he cannot pull it up himself. He recruits a variety of people (and animals) for help, including his wife, his grandchildren, the dog and the cat… but it is only when the mouse helps that they are successful in pulling up the turnip!

The moral of this story is simple: collaboration and cooperation are necessary. We need teamwork! Also, the seemingly small and insignificant mouse becomes a vital part in the story, despite looking so tiny as to be useless or irrelevant. This reminds me of Paul’s teaching that each one of us is a part of the body of Christ and every member is essential. (1 Cor 12:12-26) We’re all different and all needed. When we work together with God, nothing is impossible.

Fairytales act as fuel for the imagination. In them, we have a fantasy world of fairy godmothers and wicked witches; we have carriages conjured up from pumpkins; we have a world where nothing is impossible. That in itself is a vivid reminder to us that there is more to this world than meets the eye…

‘Puss in Boots’ is an example of this imaginary world: we have a cat who wears a pair of boots, talks and takes the leading role in a story where the marriage of a poor miller’s son to a princess is incidental to the ingenious scheming of the main character, Puss. Anthropomorphism – where human emotions and skills are attributed to an animal or object – is quite easily embraced by children and is a frequent feature of fairytales.

The moral of ‘Puss in Boots’ shows us that perseverance and skill, not to mention a little bit of suave savoir-faire (perfectly exemplified in the voice of Antonio Banderas as Puss in the Shrek fairytale and spin-off stories) may well triumph over poverty and external circumstances. The story concerns a poor man who has little going for him; his eldest brother has inherited their father’s mill and his middle brother the mules, whereas all he has inherited is a cat. Ultimately, however, he prospers thanks to the skills of the cat, and the story ends once again with the marriage of this miller to a beautiful princess.

We may well feel this fairytale commends dubious means, but Jesus spoke about a shrewd manager in one of his parables (Luke 16:1-8), and Puss always reminds me of this person! We are urged to be ‘as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves’ (Matt 10:16). Moreover, Puss’s loyalty to his master is an example to us. God wants the same kind of loyalty from us, a single-minded devotion to Him which supersedes all other loyalties. (Matt 10:37)

Fairytales are often criticised for focussing on love stories and for painting an unrealistic picture of romantic love (always between a beautiful woman in need of rescue by a handsome prince.) We’ve seen that that story in itself is a parable, for the church is a beautiful bride-in-waiting that needed to be rescued from sin by the magnificent Prince of Peace. I think it’s unfair to label all fairytales in this way, however, for some definitely have other themes.

Jack and the Beanstalk is one such tale. This is the story of Jack and his widowed mother, a tale of poverty and tension, for one of the protagonists is the giant who does not wish Jack to steal his gold, and as a result, we fear for Jack’s life. It is less clearcut in its moral teaching, for Jack is portrayed as both easily-led and foolish (for selling the dairy cow for ‘magic beans’ rather than for a secure profit) and the moral of the story seems to condone theft (the golden egg which free Jack and his mother from poverty was stolen, after all.)

Despite this moral ambiguity, the story focusses on important themes (material wealth is a key focus of life on earth for the majority of people) and shows us something of the temptations we face in life. Jesus reminded us that we cannot serve two masters (Matt 6:24) and advised us to store up treasure in heaven, not on earth. (Matt 6:19-21) The Bible warns us clearly of the dangers of covetousness and wealth, whilst commanding us to be generous and care for the poor. Sometimes a fairytale acts as a warning to us, a lived-out parable of what can happen if we follow wrong paths. Jack’s foray into the giant’s kingdom may seem to turn out fortuitously for him, but even here, the felling of the beanstalk to prevent the giant from entering Jack’s world is a reminder that we have to deal drastically and radically with the sin that so easily entangles us if we are to run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Heb 12:1-3)