Gran Torino (2008 film directed by, and starring, Clint Eastwood) is a modern parable on meekness and self-sacrifice.

Like any parable, it tells a story: the story of an old, irascible war veteran and factory worker, Walt, and his increasing alienation from his own sons and grudging acceptance of his neighbours whose Hmong ethnic identity he finds difficult to accept, following his experiences of war. His despair at the mindless gang violence in American society, his scorn of his wife’s Catholic faith, his seething rage against the ills of scoiety, his racist dislike of immigrants and his stoic acceptance of his own mortality unfold gradually. Anyone less likely to be thought of as meek would be hard to find.

The character’s natural defence is offence. When youths treaten his property, he takes a gun to them, not cowed by age or afraid of their aggressive bluster. When these youths threaten his new-found friends, his whole instinct is towards protection and revenge. Here is no naturally meek man.

As the violence escalates, it becomes obvious there is not going to be any easy solution and the brooding, reflective quality of this tormented main character leaves audiences wondering if they are going to witness a bloodbath. There is never enough evidence to convict the real perpetrators of violence; the law’s hands appear to be tied. Not so Walt’s. Locking the victim’s indignant brother (who is fuelled by righteous anger and ripe for revenge) in his basement to keep him out of harm’s way, Walt goes to meet the thugs. He sacrifices himself to their bullets, provoking them to fire the incriminating shots by reaching for his matches and deceiving them into thinking he is reaching, once again, for his gun. This time, however, he has chosen to lay down his life for his friends – friends whom he once considered his enemies. Now the police have all the evidence they need for convictions and the crime wave is, here at least, finally halted.

The parable is stunning: no-one expects Walt to offer himself willingly. His character throughout the film has seemed intent on revenge, on believing violence is the best way to secure defence. There has been no indication that he respects the priest who tries to win him to his fold; rather, he has appeared scornful and impatient with all of Christianity’s tenets, tormented by his own sins and unwilling to believe in grace and mercy because he does not deserve them. But at the end of the film, he shows a perfect understanding of the nature of meekness: a willing submission, a conscious choice, a knowledge that sacrifice is necessary at times to achieve a greater goal. No one who sees Walt’s sacrifice can surely fail to understand the choices involved in meekness, but – as Garry pointed out last night – meekness can often look to others like weakness and with it comes, at times, great personal cost.

Garry cotninued his study of the Beatitudes last night, looking at Matt 5:5 (“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”)

Meekness is not a quality the world values. It is perceived as being the same as weakness. Biblical meekness can look like weakness to the world, but there is a world of difference. Weakness results from impotence, from an inability to act in a given situation, from powerlessness. Meekness, on the other hand, results from choice, from the conscious decision to submit to One whose authority is total and whose love is unending.

Jesus said (Matt 11:28-30) that He wsa gentle (or meek) and humble and urged His disciples to imitate Him. Words can change their meaning over the years (eg ‘let’ in the KJV rendering of 2 Thess 2:7 meant ‘hold back’ or ‘prevent’ rather than the ‘allow’ it means nowadays). Meekness means mildness and gentleness. It’s the word used in Matt 21:5 to describe Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. He knew what awaited Him there, but entered quietly and determinedly.

In ordinary Greek, the word was used to:
(1) describe a wild stallion that has been tamed, brought under control and rendered fit for service. When God tells us to be meek, He wants us to be harnessed to His service. Meekness is “the opposite of self-will towards God” (Matthew Henry) and allows us to do what the Father wants. Just as a tamed horse does what the rider wants (think of the dressage competitions in the Olympics), so we too need to do what our heavenly Father wants.

(2) reflect on carefully chosen words that soothe strong emotions (see Proverbs 15:1)

(3) describe an ointment that takes out the sting from a wound. Meekness acts as a ‘shock absorber’, drawing out pain from another and refusing to retaliate. It refuses to be stung into action on our behalf.

(4) describe a child who asks a doctor to be ‘meek’, not inflicting harm. It describes strength under control, a calm and purposeful spirit, tact and courtesy.

Isaiah described Jesus’s meekness in the passages on the Suffering Servant (see Is 53:7). Peter – himself tamed by Jesus – talks of submission even to masters who are not kind (1 Pet 2:18-25) as a way of imitating Christ’s submission. In Matt 26:47-54, Jesus refused to allow swords to be drawn when soldiers came to arrest Him. He knew that God’s will would only be achieved through His sacrifice. He could have called down angels to defend Himself, but He chose instead to submit to God’s plan. Moses, called the ‘meekest man’, was tamed through his time in the wilderness so that he could go back to Pharaoh, secure in God’s plan for salvation rather than trusting in his own.

The meek need great courage and great faith, and to such people God promises the earth. Do we not only have the guts to be meek, but also have the faith?

Mark followed on from Stephen’s sermon last week on rebuilding broken walls by looking at ‘possessing the gates of the enemy’ (Gen 24:60) this morning.

Gates are often found in cities and towns and serve a dual purpose of keeping out enemies and letting people in. Gates separate areas, acting as boundaries. In Biblical times, gates were often the place where business deals were discussed and sorted (see the book of Ruth.) This verse in Genesis forms part of the prayer of blessing on Rebekah’s marriage, for if you possessed the gates of your enemy, then you were the master, in control (and having a large family was also perceived as a great blessing!)

Psalm 24 also looks at the imagery of gates: verses 7 and 9 say “Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” When a king arrived at a city, the gates would be swung wide open to allow him to enter in all his splendour and majesty. Jesus knocks at the gates of our hearts, wanting us to open up our lives fully to Him. This happens initially at salvation, and that doorway leads to everlasting life. As we progress in the Christian life, though, there is a need to keep on opening the doors of our lives to Christ, for there should be no secret gardens, no hidden rooms. Often it gets progressively harder to allow Christ into every area of our lives, for we like to be guarded and on the defensive. We need to allow Him full access, however, for this is the King of Glory, the Lord of hosts, who wants to come in! He is the captain of all the angel armies, Lord of everything on heaven and on earth. We need to give Him entrance to our lives.

Matthew 16:13-19 looks at the words of Jesus in telling us that He will build His church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Just as citizens are given the ‘key to the city’ as an honour, so too Jesus, the Key Keeper, gives us the keys to unlock the enemy’s territories.

Jesus is the Builder of His church; we are the bricks. The gates of hell will not be able to prevail against the Church (see also 1 John 4:4) As we open the gates of our lives to Christ, then we have the power and access to overcome all the enemy would throw against us; we can also plunder His kingdom so that the Light of the World may be seen and lives transformed and rescued!

On an interesting side-note, Psalm 24 has been the inspiration for a number of songs on this theme. You can listen to some of these by clicking on the links below:
Chris Tomlin, ‘King of Glory’
Godfrey Birtill, ‘Lift Up Your Heads’
Kutless, ‘Give Us Clean Hands’
(And that’s not to mention older ones by Graham Kendrick or Chris Bowater! Clearly this psalm’s imagery resonates with songwriters! How many more songs can you name?!)

Just in case anyone has been having withdrawal symptoms from Igor the iguana… He is still well, not enjoying the English autumn (being a warm-blooded reptile), but sadly has not been on many adventures lately. The closest he has come to an adventure was last night at church:

Mind you, he now has two motorbike tanks to guard, so I suppose his time is well spent in other ways! (and I was assured his timing on the drums was pretty good too!)

Stephen’s recent DIY experiences in completely renovating the bathroom at home led to this sermon on broken walls, with Nehemiah 1:3 as the starting point for the sermon. In this book, Nehemiah is one of the people God uses to encourage and help Israel to rebuild Jerusalem on their return from captivity. God is the God of second chances and Nehemiah’s practical help in inspiring and overseeing the building work were essential to the restoration of Jersualem.

Using paving blocks as illustrations…

… Stephen talked about structure, how structure defines a space and how the simplest structure is to build 4 walls to create a room with inner and outer space. Our ‘spiritual space’ is defined as we build, one brick at a time – a manageable achievement.

He then went on to talk about accessibility, often achieved through a doorway, which can both keep things out and allow things in. There are things in our lives which we must shun in order to walk with God; there are other things which must be embraced.

Walls afford protection (think of any fortified city). A ceiling provides protection from the elements, for example, in a building. God’s Word offers us protection and He is our shield and defender.

Building also involves boundaries. There is a clear line separating one area from another. Boundaries are our guideliness, our limits, our rules. We need to heed the boundaries set in God’s Word if we are to live as He wants us to.

Building also implies ownership.

God has ownership of our lives (we are not our own; He has purchased us with the blood of Christ.) We can stand tall under His leadership.

Is our life behind a firm structure?
Has our spiritual life got divine space, accessibility, protection and boundaries? Does God have ownership of our lives?
Are our defences secure against the invasion of the enemy?

We have to remember that the devil seeks to find strongholds in our lives, but these quickly become strangleholds. We need to be attentive to build our spiritual lives, one brick at a time, building with the kind of vision that sees the end product even in the ruins and rubble. We need also to give God all we have and are.

This morning we held a joint service at Furlong Road Methodist Church in Bolton-on-Dearne and celebrated a harvest festival with our friends there.

Getting the harvest display ready:

Getting ready at the start of the service:

Last year’s children’s slot asked us to think about what fruit or vegetable we would like to be. This year we were asked to imagine what the fruit and vegetables would say about themselves! Jeannette suggested that the spaghetti would tell us ‘I stand tall and straight, but when I’m cooking in water, I’m a big softy.” Other suggestions were from ‘sardines’ (“I swim in the sea and go on toast for tea”) and ‘bread’ (Mark reminded us that bread is good for the body but God’s word is the bread of life to us) and ‘apples’ (“an apple a day keeps the doctor away”!)

Dave preached from Matthew 25, looking at the need for a harvest festival nowadays, when locally grown produce mingles with produce from abroad and seasonal food seems a thing of the past. We are no longer so aware of our dependence on God and can become quite complacent about our food and lifestyles in the West. In the past, some of the practices associated with harvest festivals have not always seemed very Christian (corn dollies, for example), but the concept of thankfulness to God and offering Him our firstfruits goes right back to Genesis. Cain and Abel gave offerings to God in Genesis 4, as did Noah in Genesis 8. The Feast of Weeks (Leviticus 23) shows how the Israelites were commanded to celebrate the firstfruits of the harvest, and whilst the idyllic picture of rural England depicted in Constable’s painting ‘The Haywain’ may no longer seem relevant to us, the principle of sacrificial giving and gratitude to God remain applicable to us today.

A Harvest Festival reminds us, therefore, of all God’s gifts to us and encourages us to cultivate thankfulness and gratitude in return. We are also encouraged to give to those who are less fortunate than ourselves. The righteous who were commended in Matthew 25 did not realise that their service to others had actually been service to God. As we help other charities and churches who serve the poor, we were challenged to make this an ongoing offering and service, not just something to be done once a year at a Harvest Festival. The poor, Jesus said, will always be with us, but we become His hands and His feet when we serve others.

After the service, we enjoyed the hospitality of the Methodist church with a harvest lunch: