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ry particularly to carefully and gently hint to the far more transformative reality of living in the earth god is transforming now people where i am might have even heard me use that terrible aphorism but not without its truths it is not pie in the sky when you die but steak on the plate while you wait this waiting is now ringing with a clunky sound kris unpacks how in rev chapter 2 the new jerusalem comes down from heaven and this new creation where god takes away every tear and there is no pain is the new earth and we have to be a part of making that happen god co works with us to achieve this the lord s prayer is not about getting people into the kingdom but about getting the kingdom into people i am reminded of one of the highlights of my own ministry when using a film clip from the bible project about god space and our space and after a 6 week summer break my young people in church were able to remember my central point of teaching in the sessions we had had pre vacation that their task was to bring heaven to earth in their families and in their classrooms it was so encouraging to hear them explain to me ways that they were doing this very consciously and with self awareness kris really wants us to understand the mandate we have been given and expands explaining that god planted two trees in the garden and one was of the knowledge of good and evil and the other was the tree of life it was the tree of life people were intended to eat from so that they could live forever on earth not in heaven he challenges us to grapple with the idea that god is not in heaven in actual fact heaven is in god the heights of heaven cannot contain god psalmist david reminds us all of this he shares to reframe how we think of heaven and earth and our purpose our position there is also more to understand about heaven that there are three heavens there are no principalities and powers in god s heaven but there principalities and powers are in the heavenly realms where battles happen but this is not where we sit as christians we sit where paul explains he dwelt in the third heaven and this is the territory into which we are born with christ above the heavenly places and this is not where we are going but where we currently are he then encourages us on a specific trajectory and that if we can only configure a move from earth to heaven we will live a reactionary life but if on the other hand we can live from heaven and towards earth then we gain a heavenly perspective from this eternal seat where our prayers become prophecies and our prophecies become worlds and so we with the mind of christ foretell and forth tell the future bring life build up kris seems to want us to understand the gravitas of the spoken word and to use words for life and not death and not to complain about our communities but transform them repeating a hopeless commentary on your community is not prophetic but pathetic he tells us this appeals to the barnabas spirit living in me which people have always identified that i live to call people into their potential we must see ourselves to use a much used phrase as becomers i think david runcorn first introduced me to this idea of becoming we must call things that are not into what they are there is some encouragement from kris to name the becomers and the becoming as already manifest in the present this is very winsome it is that propensity in us to see tomorrow with god s eyes and to see ourselves perfected by christ to see the potential which lies in everything kris shares a story of a heroin addict over whom he prophesied you are a holy man and in that moment his addiction to heroin was broken and he began to live towards that new reality i have had a dream the night before kris speaks in which my uncle who is in a difficult place has broken free from everything holding him back his face is clean his spirit is gentle his voice is warm and he stands in my dream holding out his hands and speaking over and over again the same sentence of warmth and welcome until he is happy with how he is configuring and expressing it he becomes right in front of my eyes i dream this dream twice over those few days i return home and dream dreams to which i have become accustomed houses with expanses of water houses near the sea houses with expanses of sand and sea in the near distance and the water is good very good at church on sunday we seem to be more obviously pushing into the new i listen to someone else preach and a testimony is shared i sit at the back to think about how our church feels we are interrupted by a heckler and minister to him offering him welcome but are rejected for now ministry has more of a holy disorder about it like god is shaking us up and indeed the next day work begins to modify the interior of our church so that we can become more fit for the purposes i have heard about last week now is a good and expanding kind of season people are exploring their futures and discipling courses are filling up kris proposes that we do not grow churches but have to plan to grow our communities and that the difference between people who do things and people who do not do things is that people who do things do things there is laughter he reminds me finally preacher teacher and pray er that i am that there needs to be far more than the message and the prayers and we are to form a strategic plan if we only send missionaries to foreign nations our own communities are not going to change we are then asked to stand for a commissioning i have much cause for reflection next up and coming soon kris vallotton part ii no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest 25 9 17 great expectations matthew 20 1 16 we have to remember something about matthew ex tax collector as he was he knew a thing or two about money his gospel reflects this hidden treasure a pearl and last week we were shocked by a debtor cleared of millions who was just beastly to some one who owed him only five months wages we learnt something about a god who doesn t want us to live with unforgiveness he wants us to be as lavish as he has been in setting us debtors free with the life of his very son he wants us to live free unforgiveness even psychologists will tell you isn t healthy isn t good as nicky gumble reminds us in the alpha course it s like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die we learnt something last week of the power of the spirit as experienced by corrie ten boom who had watched nazis murder her sisters and go on to forgive one who became a christian as he asked for her to forgive him how it wouldn t have been something she could have done unless the power of the holy spirit had not in that moment come over her and run like a current through her arm causing her to reach out her hand to shake hands with him this week then workers called in shifts first thing at nine at noon at three and five but the latest to work working the shortest of time given exactly the same salary packet as those labouring first thing page 22 in your bibles new revised standard anglicised version nrsv please the first is last and the last is first at chapter 19 verse 30 what is matthew trying to tell us here about god how can it be that those clocking up such little time are paid the same as those who do so much well you might already have had a good go at working this out let s look at the simplest reading to an extent it is about those who came later to a living faith in god the gentiles would be as loved and provided for as those jews who had always known the god of abraham isaac jacob and then come to christ in full faith applicable today yes the church does not ordain licence or give responsibility to its members on the basis of the years they have clocked up you can be in church for decades and only later invest in your own discipling yet the newest converts can turn around their whole lives for christ let s look at another simple reading you work harder for god than someone else but receive the same reward as them from the lord of the vineyard is god unfair no he s just all grace this parable does teach us something about works and efforts and how righteousness isn t ours because somehow we have earned it or tried so hard the gospel instead tells us jesus earned salvation for us through his work his work on the cross to clear our debt wiping our slates clean with his blood so that god sees you and i perfect before him there is nothing we can do to make god love us any more there is nothing we can do to make god love us any less so this parable is a reminder that we do not earn god s love those first labourers aggrieved and in rumbling complaint would have boasted of their hard work in the scorching sun wasn t there something more that they deserved and they thought it was mistakenly all about them so we learn god loves the new people just as much as the old we learn i cannot clock up brownie points with a christian god but learning this there are some dangers if the first will be last and the last will be first i can delay my discipleship and perhaps instead give my life to god in the last ten minutes of my life we might be tempted to think or alternatively if there s nothing i can do to make god love me any more or any less and jesus earned my salvation well perhaps then i will just live as i wish no this parable squarely confronts these temptations in our thinking let s look to the context on page 22 one of the reasons for the bibles in your pews you see peter wonders why giving up everything doesn t earn him salvation who then who can be saved we ve left everything for you the parable was always jesus way of answering that question it s never about what i must or mustn t do peter is asking entirely the wrong question and very often it s the question we ask too peter is in as lamentable a place as the rich young man who went quietly away before him chapter 19 vs16 26 because he was asked to give up his wealth and realised he had so much so the rich man what must i do i can t give it all away and the poor man peter what must i do hey i gave it all up these are the responses from which jesus comes to shake us free jesus wants you to know that it is all about living with a different set of expectations about the goodness of god it was never about you the first workers in that vineyard needed to have their perspective shifted because unfortunately like peter and just like the rich young man they had worked it all out beforehand with god set the terms brokered a deal and were all control i will give you a full day s work and expect a danarius in return he made an agreement with them for their usual daily wage at verse 2 we can be like this in our discipleship i put in some hours for you god i came to church i listened and paid attention but left without what i had hoped for it didn t meet me didn t feed me you didn t answer my prayers this is what god challenges this morning and it is tough vicars are just as guilty we think there might be something we have done or failed to do to create the right conditions for you to meet with god we put in certain efforts and expect certain results when instead we must just trust you in your love for god and let god be god the later workers in the vineyard simply trusted god would do what was right at verse 4 i will pay you whatever is right this is the alternative put before us when we let god be god and trust him and know him he gives to us in far more abundance than our limited imaginings could have asked for these later labourers in the vineyard just trusted in the master s generosity knew so much better the character of god trusted the master to do what was right and this right by our lavish god s standards was paying the workers far more than they actually deserved because this is the nature of an audacious god who redeems us with everything he has even the life of his own son jesus christ those first workers with their smaller expectations are made to stand in line and simply watch as the last workers are paid the same danarius we are left with the image of the first workers grumbling complaint now god in his mercy still loves you even when you complain the hymns aren t like they used to be i expected to meet with god but that last one was a funny song say gently with a smile rach they all received a danarius but how much greater has been the experience of the later workers not because they had less work to do but because they live as we are to live as we can not help but live if jesus lives in us they live so overblown and so thoroughly surprised by the overwhelming love of an audaciously lavish and generous god when god is at work in your life you don t just expect the ordinary you expect the extra ordinary lavish love of god to be at work in your life and the people around you you see the world in new ways you come to worship him with a different grace those who expect less of god and less of other people who only expect something right in their own eyes will receive exactly what they expect those who trust instead in the goodness of god though receiving just the same seem to receive so much more they know how great god is and how small they are that he will give the holy spirit to them if they ask that it is only through such a baptism in the holy spirit s power that we can receive at all luke 13 11b the rich young man seems to think faith has so much more to do with man teacher what good thing must i do in order that i might have eternal life jesus responds why do you inquire concerning the good thing only one is the good one 19 16 17 it is jesus and his holy spirit we are to pursue god the good one it is an openness to the one who came to baptise you in the spirit which will open up your life with god and as a result impute to you a genuine love for everyone else see matthew 3 11 ephesians 5 18 john 3 5 acts 2 4 acts 19 2 acts 1 8 acts 11 16 luke 3 16 luke 24 49 acts 19 6 acts 19 1 6 acts 2 1 4 acts 4 31 mark 1 8 john 1 33 acts 10 44 john 20 22 romans 8 26 acts 1 4 5 acts 10 44 46 luke 11 9 luke 11 13 acts 11 15 16 john 14 16 17 so jesus teaches us through this parable then to set our sights so much higher to bring the whole of ourselves to worship and to sacrifice what pleases us for the sake of one another god will meet us as our hearts become full of him it s not in the music or a warm and floaty feeling where you understood the sermon or found it more encouraging it s in your openness to him and to one another letting god be god it s in your expectation so in many ways then yes it is the very hardest thing of all he asks of us it s got more to do with our surrender and our letting god be god not working it all out beforehand and setting limits on our reward a simple trusting receptivity to the sheer goodness of god is what this parable teaches i trust you god to do what is right and that i am not to control that and as we learn else where from scripture and ephesians verse 20 of...