Today is the final Sunday in the church year and also in our diverse series on receiving the Kingdom of God.  Two weeks or so ago we spoke about Judgment Day in our look at a passage from Isaiah, so I have taken a different approach today when looking at our reading from Daniel so as not to repeat myself.

One of the great spiritual heroes is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Pastor who failed to obey Hitler and was killed by the Nazis in the last days of WW2 in an act of pure spite that gained nothing for them.

In a letter written from his Nazi prison cell, Bonhoeffer says, ’God [in the person of Christ] is the beyond in the midst of our lives. (Letters and Papers from Prison. April 30, 1944).

We continue our broad theme on how we receive the Kingdom of God and today we look at it from the perspective of the NT letter to the Hebrews.

We can receive this kingdom of Jesus himself because of his one, perfect and sufficient sacrifice.  He is our great high priest forever.

Now, all the NT writers were Messianic Jews, i.e., Jews who believed that Judaism itself has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

The writer to the Hebrews is no exception; except that he is writing to practising orthodox Jews, and he demonstrates the messianic nature of Jesus particularly through Jesus’ role as great High Priest forever.

Coming up to Advent, we have some wonderful readings, two of which we have just heard; the truly wonderful stories of Ruth and Naomi and the gospel account of the widow and her two measly copper coins.

We have been speaking much about the Kingdom of Heaven and the obvious thing that connects these passages is that the Kingdom here is coming through and by way of widows – who along with orphans the Old Testament describes as those most in need and care from the community.

This was so in Jesus’ day as well as Ruth’s, c. 900 or 1,000 years earlier.

Both are stories of how God uses the culture of the times to do his will in our society and teach us how we are supposed to care for each other.

Today we celebrate All Saint’s Day, the day we remember, with thanks and praise and prayer, all those who love now, and have loved God through Christ Jesus.

Now the Church includes all those who have died in Christ, as well us we who are alive.  Those who have died in Christ are the Church Triumphant.  They have already triumphed over death and are alive now in the true realm of God; that other country that we are separated from at this time by the thinnest of veils. 

We who are still in this world are the Church Militant, still fighting the good fight, as the apostle Paul puts it.  Jesus says this body, triumphant and militant, will prevail against the very gates of death itself.

We have spoken a fair bit over the past month about how we receive the Kingdom of God, and our gospel today has to do with how we should come to Jesus, and what we should expect to receive from him, when we receive the Kingdom of God.

First, a bit of context.  Jesus is nearly in Jerusalem for the last time, only 25 kms away in Jericho.  There is a huge crowd following Jesus, all jostling to touch him or his clothes.

As if that crowd wasn’t big enough, the way was packed with people all trying to get to Jerusalem for the Passover.  It is really busy!  The entire band of disciples, are trying to work security around Jesus. 

Today we are going to spend one more week in Jesus’ difficult teachings on receiving the Kingdom of God.  Last week we saw that to receive this Kingdom of love and blessings, we need to put God first, and love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind; and as in the case of the rich young man, our strength. 

Today we look at what characterises this sort of discipleship.

This morning we begin with sobering news, but I promise we end with wonderful news!

Today’s passage from Mark looks at an important area in our life that can get in the way of receiving the Kingdom of God – money.  However, this passage could also be called the Gospel of our First Love.

The rich young man thought he was good in every way; except his first love was not God.

But when reading this passage we need to be a bit cautious!  The danger is to assume things that Jesus doesn’t at all say.

In vv.13-16, the second part of today’s gospel, Mark completes Jesus’ teaching on children and in the last two week’s gospel readings, Jesus has spoken very stern words to the disciples about their arrogance, and spiritual pride, and what welcoming someone truly means.

Yet here in v.13 of today’s passage, which immediately follows last week’s, they are doing exactly what Jesus told them not to; creating a stumbling block for little children being brought to God.

What part of millstone, neck, and being thrown into the sea didn’t they understand!

This morning’s passage from Mark follows directly on from last week’s gospel (vv.30-37), which ended with Jesus holding up a little child in his arms and telling his disciples that they must welcome one of these little ones, because it is if they are welcoming God the father himself.

Throughout Mark 8 and 9, Jesus has been attempting to turn the disciples’ thoughts away from human thoughts to God’s thoughts.  To transform their thinking.

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at faith and Works through the eyes of Jesus’ brother, James.  We’ve discovered that a faithful life will spontaneously, yet comfortably and gently, become a very productive life through whom the Lord’s perfect will can be channelled.

Now our man, Matthew, was a tax collector and therefore automatically despised by the Jews as not only collecting for the Romans who were oppressing them, but corrupt as well, pocketing unjustly levied taxes.

Yet the Lord chose him and caused him to come to faith and to write the most systematic of all the gospels. It has been instrumental in bring literally millions of people to faith though his account of the Sermon on the Mount alone!

This is faith spontaneously erupting into a very major work indeed!

This morning we continue our examination of James’ very practical letter to the Church, and we continue to find that it is about loving our Lord God almighty with all we are and have (heart, soul, mind, and strength), and loving our neighbour.

Now today we follow directly on from last week, which finished with the blunt statement of v.17, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”  This morning we are digging onto this a bit more because it is very easy to grab the wrong end of the stick and view faith and works as opposites of each other.

We are continuing our look at the letter of James; this short, very practical instruction book on how to live the life of faith.  This morning we look at the question, what is the sharp point of faith?

What’s the point?  What’s the point of faith?  Why believe or trust in God?

For the last couple of weeks we have been looking at what is means to be careful how we live; what Paul calls wisdom. 

It can be summarised as focusing on becoming disciples of Jesus, allowing ourselves to be directed by God into the fulfilling of his purposes, which will always result in being able to stand, no matter what.

But how do we do that in practical terms?  How do we become a disciple of Jesus Christ who thrives?  This week, we’re continuing this focus by beginning a short walk through the book of James, the most practical of books.

Paul’s letter to the Church in Ephesus is the blueprint of how God brings us into living the wonderful, simple, free, and full life in Christ.

It is very clearly divided into three sections, which we can call Sit, Walk, and Stand.  In our Christian walk, we need to know firstly where we sit.  Just as a building sits on its foundations, the whole first half of Ephesians (chapters 1-3) shows us what this foundation is.

Our Old Testament and New Testament readings, as well as the Psalm, all have the common thread of wisdom.  Be careful then how you live.

Paul speaks much about the wisdom of the world being foolishness in the eyes of God.  But here, and next week we will be spending time with Paul in Ephesus, looking at some very practical ways to live this believing life in Jesus as children of God.

Paul tells us we are to be careful how we live for the sake of others.

Much of the 6th chapter of John’s gospel is taken up with the nature of the bread of life, and today’s passage is its centrepiece, I think. Jesus says “I am the bread of life! (my exclamation mark, vv.35, 48).

In today’s gospel, Jesus expands and makes clear what he means.  Now in last week’s gospel, the centre of attention was on Jesus as the gift from the Father for the life of the world.

Building on that claim, today’s text focuses on Jesus as the centre of faith to which the Father draws people, bringing perfectly to full union the work of the Father and the work of the Son.

I have had people tell me that I never preach on sin (not from this parish).  But today we are looking at the nature of sin and what it does to the sinner, and repentance.

Not the repentance we have when we first believe, but being sorry for a specific thing or things we have done as Christians.

Something we did, or said, or thought, or joined in with, that truly pained others, that we furthermore tried to ‘cover up’ from ourselves and others, a process which starts in our subconscious and moves into outright denial.

This is David’s story, but alas it is also mine, and I think, part of the human condition.

The apostle Paul prays for his churches a lot in his letters, particularly Ephesians, and quite often its followed by a burst of utter praise to the Lord (called a doxology), so powerful is the Holy Spirit upon his writing!  No less so now than then.

This is the form of today’s reading from Ephesians 3.

The prayer may be familiar to you as I love it, I have used it to finish a number of sermons because it’s so very powerful, it’s pure Scripture, and perfect for church congregations like us.

A lot happens in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Mark: Jesus is rejected in his hometown, he sends the twelve on mission, John the Baptist is beheaded, Jesus feeds the five thousand and he walks on water to comfort his companions.

These are all major events in Jesus’ earthly ministry, so much so that today’s gospel seems pale in comparison.  But these less dramatic passages tell us very much indeed about the nature of God in Jesus, Son of Man.

I think that today’s reading though, serves in an important way to advance one of Mark’s central concerns; the establishment of the kingdom of God in this Jesus.

And, by extension, how it comes about in individuals and parishes.

When reading today’s NT passage, the introduction from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, I was struck by how full of hope it is.  I started counting the promises contained in just these 14 verses, then realised they aren’t really promises.

Many are statements of fact about what has already been fulfilled in Christ, and the others are fulfilled already in the eternal Kingdom of God, but not yet on earth.  Not so much promises, but a reality yet to be unfolded for us.

Unfortunately, even these 14 verses are too deep and dense to be able to be preached on in a single session.  It would take many!  So I am focussing on only one verse, v.3, which serves as a sort of summary for the teachings of the whole letter, I think.