2nd March 25

Our gospel passage today has the leaders confronting Jesus, and looking for a way to kill him.

These leaders were living with a past history and a past tradition; they thought that belonging under the banner of Abraham was enough.

It teaches us, that there is a great danger, to our spiritual lives, if our faith rests on a tradition, a church’s name, a family member or simply a membership to a denomination; our passage tells us that our faith, if it is to be real, needs to be on the move.

That’s what Jesus challenges his opponents with and opens up the question of faith to them; their faith had become dead wood, lifeless, and although claiming to be descendants of Abraham, they were nothing like Abraham; their faith did not reflect Abraham’s; because they weren’t running the race of faith that Abraham ran.

Jesus said to them, “If you are the children of Abraham, act like it” become people of faith, willing to go forward, even when the way ahead appears unknown.

 

He is pointing them to Abraham, and we have this great verse in the bible that speaks of Abraham's faith, found in Hebrews 11.

Abraham did not know where he was going. I love this about Abraham, the father of the faithful, he did not know where he was going. Does anyone here feel like this today? I'm sure often we feel like this, but Abraham was complimented for this because this is real faith; if you know where you are going, it's not faith. God is calling us to be a people of faith.

We have a rich tradition here at Cadder Church stretching 900 years. You can go onto our website and read about our history; 25 ministers since the Reformation: a total of 58 men, whose names we know, who have ministered in this congregation in over 700 years.

This church was planted before anyone here was born, 900 years ago takes us to before the days of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. Few churches can boast of this length of heritage; but we all know that our faith is not placed on a history, heritage or church building, fine as they are; these will not save us, our faith is placed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, the head of the Church, who calls us to follow him, that’s what saves us and gives us eternal life.

What we are witnessing now in the Church of Scotland, is that churches who are not looking out and looking forward and walking the path of faith, are the ones that are closing and will close, for they have lost spiritual sight of their calling.

Sadly, many congregations today live on the spiritual capital of the past, but no individual or church can live in the past. It was not tradition, religion, flesh and blood that made someone a descendant of Abraham, it was their living faith, their obedience and their trust in a Loving God. 

What I'm seeing in this church, is a church that has mission at the forefront, a church that is reaching out to its community and reaching in to support each other. Take for example, yesterday, in chat and play, the hall was again bouncing with young children and their parents. I spoke to a family that were there, and there were four generations of the one family, who have been coming to Messy Play and Chat and Play over these last few years, and they were raving about this outreach. They said when their children come now, they run into the hall, and feel so much at home. I also spoke to several school teachers who live locally, and they were there with their children, and they were loving what was happening; a church reaching out with God's mission, and during the week, the Coffee Shop and Shop are meeting a need in people's lives, reaching out in mission,  and all around the church we are developing the 5 Marks of Mission, that we are called to build our churches on, from Caring for Creation to developing our organisations and then looking out to Christian Aid and Lodging House Mission, this church, here at Cadder, is not resting in the past, but I believe it is very much going forward with a faith like Abraham’s.

As we look around the church grounds, we see spring in the air, little snowdrops are the first signs. Look at the snowdrops in our church, I'm not talking about the church grounds but signs of mission, shooting up all around us. They are the beginning of Spring, take care of them and nurture them!

Jesus picks up on this theme that if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.

So, what are the works of Abraham?

    1. First and foremost, Abraham is in relationship with God. He hears God and he obeys God. God calls him to leave everything, his home and family and go to a land that he has prepared for him, and we are told that he doesn’t know where he is going. 

But Abraham had a faith that understood. He understood that God was with him. Hebrews 11 v1 3 “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible ”. Abraham came to understand that God was real. 

Abraham understood and believed this, it wasn’t a blind faith but a faith that reasoned out, and so he was prepared to step out, and go where no man has gone before. 

Faith is Seeing.

He is travelling to a land that God promised him. He caught a glimpse of God's Kingdom. He couldn’t see it physically but spiritually he saw it.  Francis Crosby that brilliant hymn writer, despite her physical blindness wrote,  the great hymn Blessed Assurance and one of the verses goes like this:

Perfect communion, perfect delight,

visions of rapture now burst on my sight.

Angels descending bring from above

echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Like Abraham, she could see it spiritually.

Faith is about being obedient.

So, what does acting like Abraham entail?  Abraham had an adventurous faith. He heard God speak, and he responded. He was called from his life of false worship; in his culture, their god was the moon, he was called out of this false religion, to an obedient walk with God. 

God called him out of this life and to travel to a land that he would bless him with. A journey with many twists and turns upon the road.

But he goes with a great blessing,

“I will make you into a great nation,

    and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

    and you will be a blessing.

³ I will bless those who bless you,

    and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

    will be blessed through you.”

It was risky, for he had to leave everything that was familiar; country, home, family household; He had to go into the unknown, he took a big risk but he believed in a big God.

 

Sometimes, we are called to be like Abraham, stepping out on a journey of faith. It may not always be what we intended, or even what we wanted; a comfortable life, sounds much better than a life of challenge and dis ease.

Life brings with it its own challenges, and suddenly, we may be cast out into the deep waters.

 

We simply don’t know where we are going. It may be illness, suddenly we are given a diagnosis and we are sent spiralling into a new journey, or bereavement or financial security, family issues and suddenly we are on a journey seeking God's blessing.

 Just like Abraham, he had no idea where he was going other than God was with him. 

Some may feel like that in church today, your minister has told you he is leaving and suddenly a new journey opens up. Right now, you don’t know what that journey will look like. Everyone will have different ways of coping with this, from let's try and sort it immediately, to let's just wait and see what happens; we can learn from Abraham, who steps out, but he doesn’t have all the immediate answers, he steps out trusting that God will provide for the journey ahead. That's what it is like to act like Abraham. 

You see the church is far more than a minister, just come and look at the list of all who have journeyed with the congregation here and God has been faithful and blessed the journey here. 

I wonder if that was what it was like for Christopher Columbus, when he left everything, and sailed west, and discovered America. He found the Americas by accident. He was actually looking for a new way to get to China and India.

Or what about David Livingstone, who went to land that he knew not where he was going but for him, he went with assurance of God's blessing. He said, “Without Christ, not one step, with him, everywhere!”

One of my favourite missionaries, is James Chalmers who left the shore of Loch Fyne to go to Papua New Guinea in the late 1880's to bring the Gospel to the cannibals of that land. 

There is a monument, in his memory in Ardrishaig to this day. James brought the Gospel to these people, but it would eventually cost him his life.

Many have stepped out in faith, like the missionary Jim Elliot who went to bring the Gospel to South America in the 1950's, and wrote in his diary before his murder to the people he went to save, “He is no fool who gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

 

These words convey a profound truth. They did not originate with Jim Elliot; those precise words were spoken and written centuries earlier. But there is great truth in these words, which encourage us to walk the life of faith.

Today a church flourishes in Papua New Guinea all because a wee lad from Ardrishaig heard the call of Jesus on his life and was obedient and followed Jesus.

Maybe today you are been called to go somewhere that you’ve never been before, it might not be geographical, it might be spiritual, or it might be relational and God calls you to go there.

 

God calls us to step out in faith, keeping going at Cadder Church, keep praying for and encouraging those who have understood that God is in this church and mission, who have stepped out in faith and who are missionaries right her in this church today.

He's calling us all to be true descendants of Abraham, not people clutching to the past or building on past traditions but people willing to step out in faith. Our churches in Scotland today, need the spirit of Abraham more than anything else.

 

At the heart of Jesus' ministry, were the words, “come and follow me”, he didn’t give them a road map or a guarantee, that they would be safe, quite the opposite, that they would have to carry a cross; but he did promise, that he would go with them, and there would be blessings. 

That’s exactly was what Abraham was to encounter. If faith can see every step of the way, it's not really faith, its sight, but faith is going, where you don’t know where you are going. 

That’s what Jesus was saying to the Jews, if you want to be like Abraham, don’t just speak about it; be people of true faith, show it in your lives, step out and trust in God. 

Abraham, was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. This was what Abraham had to hold on to.  Jesus calls people to his Kingdom, and like Abraham, we are called to be obedient and follow him.

Let me finish with final missionary, Eric Liddell was a world-class runner but he dedicate his life to reaching out with God's grace in China.

This little clip is from chariots of fire and has Eric speaking before he won his Olympic Gold and left for China.

"You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It's hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experience elation when the winner breaks the tape. Especially if you've got a bet on it. But how long does that last? You go home, maybe your dinner's burnt. Maybe you haven't got a job. So who am I to say, 'Believe - have faith,' in the face of life's realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. Then where does the power come from to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said: 'Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts you truly seek Me, you shall ever surely find Me.' If you commit yourself, to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race."

So on this Sunday of transfiguration, we are all called to run the race of faith of faith, some today may be tired, some may feel it to be like an uphill battle, but keep going, the crown is in sight.

Let us pray

In pilgrimage, O Lord, show us the path to be taken; in commitment, the will to be obeyed; in service, the cost to be borne; and in faithfulness, the crown to be won.

Ann Mason, Bible Christian minister (1797-1826)