WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.280 If you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your Father in heaven may forgive 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:15.580 your sins. It's a tough one, and this reading this morning is, let's, this passage this morning 00:00:15.580 --> 00:00:20.760 clearly is a difficult one, because when you look at how commentators interpret this, 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:26.820 there are several that sort of verge from one end of the other, is Jesus just having a bad day, 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:34.719 has really, just is this a teaching experience for his disciples? I don't think so. You know, 00:00:34.939 --> 00:00:39.159 if it's a teaching experience where I'm going to walk out of here and possibly face death, 00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:45.980 then I may think about how I do things in this service. Jesus is very clear about what he's doing. 00:00:45.980 --> 00:00:53.000 If we put this into context, what has happened? Mark shortens the account. There's this been 00:00:53.000 --> 00:01:00.159 triumphal entry into Jerusalem. People have welcomed Jesus. He is the Messiah. He is coming. 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:08.040 Welcome Jesus. And then, and then Jesus pays a short visit to the temple, just pops his head in round, 00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:16.359 just to see what's happening. And I guess Jesus is pretty upset with what he has found. 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:25.180 He then goes off for the night to sleep, we're told. And this is where the story starts the next day. 00:01:25.180 --> 00:01:32.219 He is travelling into Jerusalem with his disciples. And here we get the story of this fig tree. Given the 00:01:32.219 --> 00:01:40.640 time of year, there wouldn't be figs on it, but it had the potential. Year in and year out, this fig tree 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:50.700 has got the opportunity to fruit and make great fruit. Jesus is making a point. He clearly had in his head 00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:59.060 that this was a significant thing that he was about to do. This is all joined up with part of the teaching. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:07.560 As we know, he went ahead to attend the temple. Frankly, we know that the temple had become no more 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:15.199 than, as Jesus had said, it was more than a trading station. People were basically exploiting other 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:21.500 people. They were selling doves at exploited prices. The money changers were basically ripping 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:29.199 people off left, right and centre. The temple was everything that it shouldn't be. It was frankly 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:35.740 an abomination to God. I did put a line in there. It actually made parliament look good, 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:42.760 but maybe that was a comment that I shouldn't throw in this week. It was, I think this passage 00:02:42.760 --> 00:02:51.960 is a tipping point. And we all have them, where something significant shifts in us and through us. 00:02:52.060 --> 00:02:59.100 And this was a shifting point in this holy week. Jesus had got to the point where something had to 00:02:59.100 --> 00:03:05.280 break. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, probably not at this moment in time. 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:12.780 Jesus is making a point. The tables are turned over. Everything's thrown into a ray. 00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:21.520 But as we read in scripture, clearly Jesus gathered people and said, yeah, actually, you're right. 00:03:22.099 --> 00:03:30.139 This isn't the way we do things. This isn't right. So clearly the leaders at the time were rather 00:03:30.139 --> 00:03:38.059 miffed, to say the least, that Jesus had pointed out to them, pointed out to the multitude, this is not 00:03:38.059 --> 00:03:45.019 the way you do things in my temple. And when you see something so beautiful and precious to the Father, 00:03:45.519 --> 00:03:53.739 what do we do? Do we turn a blind eye and just let it continue happening? Just allow it to go down the 00:03:53.740 --> 00:04:02.180 slippery slope. Or do we, as Jesus here, what is clearly a very, very social action moment? Let's do 00:04:02.180 --> 00:04:11.719 something about it. And everybody is left, we are left in no doubt that Jesus was reclaiming something, 00:04:12.500 --> 00:04:17.879 seeking to reclaim as he walked down this painful road to Good Friday. 00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:25.879 So with this significant moment having occurred in the temple, they then just happen to wander past 00:04:25.879 --> 00:04:35.240 this fig tree, which has withered and died to the root within, presumably, a few hours. This doesn't 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:42.420 normally happen. What a great opportunity. In his heart, Jesus must have thought, the prophets have come 00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:49.960 before, people aren't listening. This is a nation that I've come to save and had all its fruitfulness, 00:04:50.160 --> 00:05:01.100 all its potential. Here they get this stark vision of what it is when you don't nurture something and it 00:05:01.100 --> 00:05:11.580 doesn't bear fruit. What do we do with that? What do we do with the bigger thing? What do we do when 00:05:11.579 --> 00:05:21.359 we're faced with issues? Where is our focus? Where is our faith? Where do we stand when we see things 00:05:21.359 --> 00:05:30.019 that are going on that aren't of God? My experience, and maybe it is yours, that often, sometimes we're 00:05:30.019 --> 00:05:39.939 deflected and we focus on the smaller things in life and we miss the bigger picture, the bigger blessing 00:05:39.939 --> 00:05:47.540 that God wants to show us. I don't know whether in front of your computer screen, and if you're like me, 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:53.279 you've spent a lot of time in front of a computer screen, far too much over the last 18 months. 00:05:53.980 --> 00:06:01.399 Now, I've never had what is called a dead pixel. Anybody that's had a dead pixel on their screen 00:06:01.399 --> 00:06:11.459 means that out of all these amazing, and I will tell you that on a standard 1920 by 1080 screen, 00:06:11.679 --> 00:06:22.159 there is 2,073,600 pixels. These little things that make the screen up. But isn't it strange 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:34.980 how if one pixel breaks, that is where our focus is. We focus on the one thing rather than the bigger 00:06:34.980 --> 00:06:42.600 picture and the blessing. Never mind all the rest that are working well, this one dead pixel is the one 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:56.280 we focus on, and dare I say it, become obsessed with. Is that one thing for you in the great multitude of 00:06:56.280 --> 00:07:03.500 the blessings that God has given us? Maybe this morning we think, what is that dead pixel for us? 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:13.420 Is it a person? Is it a situation? Is it a past church you might have attended, or a relationship 00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:21.360 with somebody that you had? A person at work maybe. Out of all these things of which we are blessed, 00:07:21.740 --> 00:07:28.939 if you are anything like me, and I'll be totally honest, sometimes that one pixel, that one situation, 00:07:28.939 --> 00:07:36.680 that one person is the thing that I become obsessed with, rather than seeing the bigger picture. 00:07:37.860 --> 00:07:45.459 And Jesus this morning gives us the answer to the dead pixel on our screen and in our life. 00:07:46.519 --> 00:07:52.740 Because when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, 00:07:52.740 --> 00:08:02.819 so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Jesus told this great teaching thing, 00:08:02.819 --> 00:08:10.340 what is getting in the way of this thing of bearing the full fruit of each and every one of us have 00:08:10.340 --> 00:08:16.960 in our lives? What holds us back? What gets in the way? What is the person I am tempted not to send 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:23.579 a Christmas card to this year? Who has marked off my Christmas list? Who I should be phoning them up 00:08:23.579 --> 00:08:30.899 and saying, bless you. Who is the person that maybe I may be tempted to cross over the road and not engage 00:08:30.899 --> 00:08:38.199 in conversation because of something in the past? Where is that challenge for me to pick up the phone? 00:08:38.200 --> 00:08:46.680 And I will tell you, I was convicted greatly just before being ordained. I thought I had everything 00:08:46.680 --> 00:08:54.160 sorted and there was no unfinished business with God until he showed me a list of about six people 00:08:54.160 --> 00:09:01.660 that I needed to have some difficult and redemptive conversations with for this very, very thing, 00:09:02.040 --> 00:09:08.060 to actually be able to move on. And if Jesus can forgive, so can we. 00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:14.980 I have heard this difficult thing for many of us. We would know from where we have been hurt, 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:21.400 from disappointments in our life, from situations we have come from, that forgiveness sometimes isn't 00:09:21.400 --> 00:09:28.360 just rapid, it is a process. But it is a process in which God can be part of to bring us forgiveness 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:35.100 and his redemption as we will learn as we go through the story. Because redemptive justice and 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:41.920 apology, let's be frank, may never come in the way we're expected from somebody else. 00:09:42.659 --> 00:09:51.399 We could wait all our life for that. Sometimes the hard thing is to say, let's clear our plate 00:09:51.399 --> 00:10:01.220 and come with clean hands and a pure heart by making that move. Otherwise, believe you me, it will destroy you. 00:10:02.059 --> 00:10:09.819 And things in you will die, like the dead pixel, like the tree, like the fig tree. It will never mature. 00:10:09.820 --> 00:10:17.860 It will never grow the fullness of fruit that we are called to do, because there will always be that thing that's there. 00:10:18.180 --> 00:10:26.900 Jesus uses this and asks me, asks me personally in this scripture, what is the pixel or the pixels in my life? 00:10:27.280 --> 00:10:34.600 Where is it that fruit isn't being grown? Because something's got in the way because of an issue. 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:42.120 And then we remember, of course, that Jesus said, Father, forgive them. 00:10:42.980 --> 00:10:47.940 At the end of this week, on a Friday, after all that he had been through, 00:10:48.980 --> 00:10:55.139 after everything that he could have said, that he could have done, that he could have held in resentment, 00:10:55.779 --> 00:10:59.600 on the cross, says, Father, forgive them. 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:03.600 Because they probably don't know what they're doing. 00:11:05.040 --> 00:11:07.200 They probably don't know what they're doing. 00:11:07.340 --> 00:11:08.980 They don't know what they're doing to us. 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:11.240 They don't know what they're doing to our relationship. 00:11:11.620 --> 00:11:16.300 They don't know how it's marring God's image, not only in them, but in us as well. 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:18.980 Get to the point, this is it. 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:24.460 Father, forgive them, because maybe they don't even know what they're doing or they have done. 00:11:24.460 --> 00:11:30.860 But I'm going to make the move, as Jesus did, so that we can have that freedom. 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:39.500 Our psalm that we had, Jesus gives us that confidence in prayer. 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:44.220 I can't do this forgiveness thing in my own strength, I know, 00:11:44.220 --> 00:11:50.100 because maybe like many of us, I have this inbuilt sense of, 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:57.560 I want some form of justice here and now, on my terms. 00:11:58.399 --> 00:11:59.940 That's the issue, isn't it? 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:03.940 Often I want it on my terms, not on God's terms. 00:12:03.940 --> 00:12:14.240 And so we are then, as Jesus said, we are freed from this sense of wanting retribution and justice on our terms. 00:12:14.880 --> 00:12:18.160 And you can often come to him, but, you know, as it said, 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:20.800 who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? 00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:22.760 Who may stand in this holy place? 00:12:23.100 --> 00:12:26.520 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart. 00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:33.019 I remember having a conversation with somebody many years ago, 00:12:33.539 --> 00:12:39.600 for whom that verse was really significant in a family issue that they were dealing with. 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:43.779 They said, I want clean hands and a pure heart in this. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:45.620 I've had enough. 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:49.559 It's got to start somewhere, and it's got to start with me. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:52.199 Clean hands and a pure heart. 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:58.220 In our service of healing and wholeness today, as we come and share communion, 00:12:58.379 --> 00:13:02.160 as we come and have an opportunity to be maybe anointed with oil, 00:13:02.400 --> 00:13:05.660 if that's what you wish, if you sense there's a fresh beginning here, 00:13:05.980 --> 00:13:08.759 our bodies, as we come to receive communion, 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:12.320 we acknowledge that our bodies are the temple. 00:13:13.060 --> 00:13:15.440 Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. 00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:18.560 You know, what is there that's cluttered? 00:13:18.620 --> 00:13:22.000 What tables, I ask myself, have to be turned over? 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:28.480 In my temple, in order for it to be holy and acceptable for the Lord. 00:13:30.280 --> 00:13:32.560 What needs to be turned over for me? 00:13:33.680 --> 00:13:35.440 What needs to be turned over for us? 00:13:36.620 --> 00:13:41.200 Our stubbornness, resentment, long-held accounts, greed, selfishness, 00:13:41.300 --> 00:13:43.000 the list can go on. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:45.860 But we know what tables need to be turned over 00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:49.780 for us to come with clean hands and a pure heart, 00:13:49.779 --> 00:13:54.759 to stand with Jesus in that place where in his strength he can forgive 00:13:54.759 --> 00:13:58.699 and remove our eyes from the pixel on the screen 00:13:58.699 --> 00:14:02.240 and see the multitude of opportunities and blessings 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.519 and fruit that will come from us 00:14:04.519 --> 00:14:07.419 and that we'll be blessed with. 00:14:09.100 --> 00:14:10.459 Blessings to follow him. 00:14:10.460 --> 00:14:14.000 Are we confident in our prayer of confession this morning? 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:20.879 Do we truly believe that we walk out with clean hands and a pure heart 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:24.940 or ready and empowered to do the thing that we need to do, 00:14:25.460 --> 00:14:26.680 to say our sorries? 00:14:28.040 --> 00:14:31.580 Maybe again, when you go home and over lunch or wherever today, 00:14:32.120 --> 00:14:34.540 maybe start listing the blessings. 00:14:34.539 --> 00:14:37.879 I love that song my grandmother used to play, 00:14:38.599 --> 00:14:39.879 you know, count your blessings. 00:14:40.299 --> 00:14:42.360 It's an old one, but it's so true. 00:14:43.199 --> 00:14:44.079 Count your blessings. 00:14:44.459 --> 00:14:45.860 And when you start counting them, 00:14:46.179 --> 00:14:51.439 they will infinitely outnumber the broken pixel on your screen. 00:14:52.019 --> 00:14:52.899 I promise you. 00:14:54.379 --> 00:14:58.860 And also it helps to focus what that broken pixel is. 00:14:59.959 --> 00:15:01.919 Freedom to speak, freedom to share. 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:05.179 Do you want to know the fullness of God? 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:07.939 Ask him to help. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:10.699 Taste and see that the Lord is good. 00:15:12.079 --> 00:15:15.519 Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:18.219 Fear the Lord, you his holy people, 00:15:18.539 --> 00:15:22.039 for those who fear him lack nothing. 00:15:23.199 --> 00:15:24.740 The lion may grow weak and hungry, 00:15:25.059 --> 00:15:27.519 but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 00:15:27.860 --> 00:15:30.279 Come, my children, listen to me. 00:15:30.279 --> 00:15:32.740 I will teach you the fear of the Lord, 00:15:33.159 --> 00:15:38.319 whosoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days. 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:40.740 Keep your tongue from evil, 00:15:41.559 --> 00:15:43.100 your lips from telling lies. 00:15:44.079 --> 00:15:45.860 Turn from evil and do good. 00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:49.000 Seek peace and pursue it. 00:15:49.839 --> 00:15:50.879 It's great advice. 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:55.179 I pray today as we come for communion, 00:15:55.720 --> 00:15:57.899 for those who maybe are listening on a podcast, 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:00.159 wherever they are today, 00:16:00.820 --> 00:16:03.960 that maybe you may take time to count your blessings. 00:16:05.220 --> 00:16:09.080 And maybe as Jesus taught in this short, 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:11.000 but very clear teaching, 00:16:11.340 --> 00:16:12.659 quite dynamic teaching, 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:15.139 that he gave to those around us 00:16:15.139 --> 00:16:18.659 to come to that point where we come 00:16:18.659 --> 00:16:24.080 and we can seek God's forgiveness for ourselves, 00:16:24.419 --> 00:16:27.439 but also have the power and strength to blossom 00:16:27.439 --> 00:16:28.879 as we forgive others. 00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:31.960 Should we just pray together 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:35.199 as we come and move into a time of prayer? 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:40.560 Holy Spirit, would you come and strengthen us 00:16:40.560 --> 00:16:42.620 for whatever this has stirred in us? 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:45.360 Maybe a picture, a situation, 00:16:46.920 --> 00:16:47.740 a person, 00:16:48.740 --> 00:16:53.600 maybe something that is extremely live for us at the moment, 00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:55.700 something that may be historic. 00:16:55.700 --> 00:16:59.000 Whatever it is, Lord, 00:16:59.060 --> 00:17:00.500 we come to you and say, 00:17:00.620 --> 00:17:02.920 we want to be that fig tree 00:17:02.920 --> 00:17:04.480 that bears fruit and season 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:07.799 to the fullness of what you would want. 00:17:10.340 --> 00:17:11.779 We pray for our church 00:17:11.779 --> 00:17:13.620 and our country at this time as well. 00:17:14.600 --> 00:17:15.640 We thank you, Lord, 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:16.980 for the authority of scripture 00:17:16.980 --> 00:17:20.740 on which we base your love 00:17:20.740 --> 00:17:23.360 and your continued confidence 00:17:23.360 --> 00:17:25.380 in us and for us. 00:17:25.700 --> 00:17:28.259 And so, Lord, 00:17:28.340 --> 00:17:30.019 send us out, we pray this day, 00:17:30.360 --> 00:17:31.759 as we share our communion 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:34.000 in the power of your spirit. 00:17:35.580 --> 00:17:36.700 In Jesus' name. 00:17:37.180 --> 00:17:37.420 Amen.