Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever.
Psalm 106 goes on to say.
What we're going to think about this morning is probably actually quite counter-cultural.
Here's some of the sound bites, the zeitgeist, if you like, of the modern.
And probably if you were watching Ireland yesterday, as I was, bidding for the number one place and getting absolutely whippeded by England.
You're only as good as your last match. Have you heard managers say that?
Never mind the record before, you're only as good as your last match.
You're only as good as your last sermon, some churches say, of their pastor.
In the back pages of the newspaper, in the investment section, if you're so inclined.
Past performance is no indication of future growth.
As we watch the stock markets plummet.
There's an awful lot about living for the day.
Living for the moment.
And indeed, I suppose quite naturally in our thinking, one of the questions I'm sure, if we could write it down in that question box, would be,
Where is God leading me?
What does God want to do in my life?
Where will I be in a year's time?
What should I do?
Lord, what do you want me to do?
I've got to tell you that if at 16, I had been told that I would be an ordained pastor and a teacher, I would have wept.
I couldn't have thought of anything worse at 16.
I don't know about you, but I find I'm not one of those people who very often in my life has been able to say,
This is absolutely what God wants me to do and where God wants me to go.
Now, there have been occasions, there definitely have been occasions, where we've sought and we've prayed and we've fasted and we've asked God to guide us.
And we have sensed a leading.
But for me, the way it seems to work, and I don't know if you think this is wrong, but it just seems to be the way it works for me.
It's when I turn and I look back that I can see that I was guided all along.
That doors opened and God put people into my life and, you know, coincidences, except they weren't coincidences, they were God incidences.
And at the time, I wasn't very sure about it.
I wasn't sure where the direction and the path was going.
But when I look back, I can see that I have been guided clearly.
I don't know if that's your experience.
So we seem very future orientated.
We don't like to talk about the past too much.
The past is passé.
And then there are rare moments when suddenly we do remember.
We make remembrance our focus.
Four years ago, I was very, very fortunate.
My father was a World War II veteran.
And he got invited, and he was allowed to bring somebody with him, so it was me, across to London from Northern Ireland for the 70th anniversary of VE Day.
And there was a service at Westminster Abbey and a two-mile walk, which he absolutely insisted upon doing, along the mile and into St. James's Park.
There was a reception there.
He got to meet Prince Charles.
He actually had a golden 15 minutes where he chatted to Prince Charles for quite a wee while and then was walking across the lawn.
And they'd had all these 1940s dancers, you know, all done up in the gear.
And the press were taking photographs of them.
And one of the press said, get the old guy in the middle.
And I've never seen a 90-year-old man drop 40 years or 50 years in about 10 seconds.
The walking stick, hold that, Nick.
And he was right in there in the middle of them.
But the best thing about that was as we were walking together up the mile, you know how, as you get older, people seem to mumble more.
You know, newsreaders don't speak as clearly.
And people were shouting things.
They were shouting things from, you know, the streets were absolutely packed.
And dad said to me, what are they shouting, Nicholas?
What are they shouting?
Do you know what they were shouting?
They were shouting, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you to all these old guys and girls who were marching up, probably for the last procession ever.
Because they were looking back and they were remembering that that was a time of peril and a time of deliverance.
And they were saying, thank you.
And Psalm 105 is a thank you psalm.
It's a remembering psalm.
It's about looking back in order to look forward.
The Jewish faith is particularly good at this.
So they tell the stories and they retell them and they retell them.
And in fact, you will know that it was a command.
And as you're walking down the street, tell the stories.
Remind them of the commandments.
Write them in your doorposts.
Tie them around your arms.
Tie it around your head.
Whatever you do, don't forget the stories.
Don't forget God's covenant.
Don't forget God's law.
And Jewish families will gather together every year at Pisa or Passover.
And why is this night to be remembered amongst all nights is the question.
And they go through a ritual of retelling the story.
They tell it in word.
They tell it in symbol.
They tell it.
I was quite glad that Haman was mentioned because the festival of Purim is a Jewish festival.
They all gather and they reread the story of Esther and Haman.
And I've seen, I'm sure this doesn't happen maybe in Orthodox synagogues, but in liberal synagogues, I've seen a video of a service.
And they're all fancy dress.
They dress up as one of the characters from the story.
And every time Haman's name is mentioned, they either blow raspberries or there's a rattle, you know, to drown out his name.
They remember the story.
They go to extraordinary lengths to remember the story.
Because that is when God came through for them.
Tell the story, the traditions of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob.
They remember them not just for who they were, great patriarchs, great people of faith, but for who God was for them.
And I know for some of you, this is cool to Newcastle.
You know this stuff better than I do.
But just in case you don't know what the word covenant means.
Covenant, it is a biblical expression, but actually it was quite common in near Middle Eastern history.
It simply meant a treaty or an agreement.
And the Jews believed three things, well, at least three things about God.
One, he was a creational God.
Now, that wasn't unusual amongst Middle Eastern religions.
Lots of religions believed in some kind of creator God or gods.
Secondly, the Jews believed in a providential God.
That means a God who got involved with human affairs.
Now, that again wasn't that unusual a belief amongst the other religions.
You know, they would quite often believe that God could smite or God could make a harvest grow or whatever.
But what made the Jewish people unique was that they believed in a covenantal God.
A God who entered into relationship with his people.
And the covenants often have a binding promise.
I will if you will.
I will be your God if you will be my people.
I will be your God if you keep my commandments.
So, there's a bind sort of on both sides.
So, they remember the covenant to Abraham.
In fact, the very, very first covenant was to Noah.
And each covenant has a sign as well, a seal on it.
And the seal of the covenant to Noah is the rainbow.
I will never flood the earth again.
To Abraham, he says, I'm going to give you many descendants.
That's my promise to you.
It's renewed to Isaac.
It's renewed to Jacob, whose name is changed and he becomes Israel.
And then it's renewed again through Moses.
And here we have in Psalm 105, more or less, the whole story.
From grandfather to father to son.
And then 400 years to Moses.
In verse 42 of Psalm 105, it says,
God remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham.
That's when Moses hits the rock and water flows out.
So, God remembers, and my biblical arithmetic might not be just absolutely tip-top,
but God remembers a promise he gave 700 years ago to Abraham, roughly.
And then 700 years later, David is saying to his people,
because we believe that David wrote this Psalm,
he's saying, you've got to remember.
Remember, remember God's goodness, God's deliverance, God's salvation.
And the Jewish community, 3,500 years later,
are still remembering every Passover.
The things that we've read about in Psalm 105.
You see, with God, past performance is an indication of future growth.
We look back and we see what God has done in order to move forward.
There's a tribe in South America, I believe,
quite like their thinking.
They are moving through time, metaphorically, backwards.
So, when they talk, and I have to read this out.
They're in the High Andes, by the way, if anybody wants to look them up.
They're called Amaira.
Their word for future,
and please correct my pronunciation if you know Amaira,
is Gipapacha.
That's their word for future.
And Gipapacha means behind time.
The future's behind them,
because they can't see it.
So, when they talk about the future,
they actually point backwards.
And when they talk about the past,
it's Naira Pacha.
It means Ford time.
So, when they talk about the past,
they point in front of them.
Because we don't know what's going to happen,
even later on today.
We may have plans,
but we don't really know what's going to happen.
But we can look back and see what has happened,
and identify how God has delivered,
and has rescued.
Because he is the I Am.
The old, what is it?
The old hymn says,
For I know who holds the future.
And he holds it in his hand.
With God, things don't just happen.
I used to sing it,
For God, things just don't happen.
And that's not right.
For God, things don't just happen.
Everything by him is planned.
God says to Moses,
I am.
I am the eternal present
in a way that you and I can never be.
He was as much present in the past
as he's present now.
And God is here
and is present in the future.
Now, I was born 1969.
I know I don't look good.
I can trace my family back to 1807.
But I know very little before that.
I am one person in time.
But God was as fully
with my great-great-grandparents
as he was with my great-grandparents
and my grandparents
and with you and with me
and with the generations before.
In fact, I think it says,
verse 8,
he remembers his covenant forever,
the word he commanded
for a thousand generations.
Psalm 105 says,
trust the one
who holds the past
and the present
and the future together.
Here's something I kind of,
I suppose I run past the kids.
This is my mathematics.
It's still probably not perfect.
We are told,
we are told by NASA,
whether you believe it or not,
there are 100 billion suns
in our galaxy.
100 billion suns.
And they estimate,
they estimate that
there are 100 billion galaxies.
And that's 100 with 23 zeros
after it, apparently.
And if you divide that
between 7 billion people
on the planet,
so you and I get our star kingdom
each,
each one of us,
and you go and visit
your star kingdom
bit by bit,
and you can travel
instantaneously between them,
so you spend a day
on each of your stars,
it would take you
39 billion years
just to visit the stars
assigned to you.
I don't know
if you like my maths or not,
but what my Bible says
is that he calls them out
one by one,
and by his power
not one of them
is missing.
He doesn't just hold
the future
and the present
and the past
in his hand,
he holds the whole
of creation
in his hand.
And what's best of all,
he's a covenantal
relationship-making God
with you
and me.
I don't know
where you are this morning.
I don't know
if you're discouraged
in your faith
or greatly encouraged
in your faith.
I don't know
if you're feeling
very close to God
or you're feeling
very far away from God.
I don't know,
it may be
that you don't know
that relationship
with God through Christ
that I'm speaking
about this morning.
But what I would like
this morning
for the next little bit,
and I don't think
it should finish
when I stop speaking,
is to be a time
of telling stories
of faith,
encouraging each other
with our individual
walk with God
about where you've
seen God
at work.
Because it's by
remembering these things
that we can
engage with others,
but we can also
re-engage
with our faith.
Remembering when God
has been faithful.
Because sometimes
you can be in a situation
and because it's
the immediate
and it's the present,
it feels overwhelming
or it feels maybe
that God isn't there.
And what we do
is we look back
and we say,
God is faithful.
As he was faithful
to Abraham
and to Isaac
and to Jacob
for generation
after generation
after generation,
he is faithful
and will be faithful
to me.
The future,
I can't see it,
it's behind me.
The past,
what he has done
is all in front of me.
And so I'm going to ask you,
I don't know whether you,
do you do tea and coffee
afterwards as well?
Or folks are like,
do you know what?
It would be great
to talk about the rugby yesterday.
And yes,
well done Scotland.
Yeah.
And didn't Liverpool do well?
And yeah,
what are you doing this week?
And all that.
How about
we just for once
go up,
if you're comfortable,
and ask somebody,
tell me a story
about faith in your life
when God was
really very real
for you.
And as that person
tells the story,
they'll remind themselves.
And as they tell the story,
they'll encourage you.
And as a congregation,
we'll be encouraged
to know that God
has been faithful.
And these just aren't
stories from the
dim,
distant past
that he's the same
yesterday,
today,
and forever.
And I think
that probably
would be far more
of an encouragement
to faith
than some
50-year-old Irishman
standing at the front
and talking
for possibly too long.
You do the ministry.
You share
with people.
I'm going to tell you
two quick stories.
And these are just
examples,
because they don't need
to be big,
big,
you know,
I was at death's door
stories.
Although they're
very good as well.
But here's one.
You'll maybe not even
think this is God.
You'll maybe think
this is too trivial.
I was in cool rain.
I was dropping my son
off at a Northern
Irish Scripture Union
camp.
I have managed
to brainwash him
into thinking
that he's a Northern
Ireland boy in exile.
So he goes to
Northern Irish
Scripture Union
camps.
He actually,
bizarrely,
in the way that
only Northern
Irish Scripture
Union could do,
he goes to a
Northern Irish
Scripture Union
Scottish camp.
Which used to
meet in Edinburgh.
So he would
leave him off
in Northern Ireland
so Scripture Union
could take him
to Edinburgh.
Now,
they can't go
to Edinburgh
anymore so they
go to Bullingar
which is in the
south of Ireland.
So it's now
the Northern
Ireland Scripture
Union Scottish
camp meeting
in the south
of Ireland.
Anyway,
we took him
across.
I'm from
Colerain.
I don't know
if you like
golf but that's
four miles from
Port Rush
where the Open
was held for
the first time
since 1951.
It was all
the news in
Northern Ireland.
It was the
biggest thing.
Tickets were sold
out nine hours
after they
went on sale.
So,
we're there.
We happened to
have a free day.
Bit of dad-son
bonding time.
What would you
like to do
before I drop
you off at
camp?
No.
Well,
come on,
let's do
something now
we're here.
No.
Well,
shall we go to
Port Rush?
We'll just soak
up the atmosphere.
No.
So,
we go to
Port Rush
and don't
expect you
to know
Port Rush
but you can
actually see
part of the
course from
the road.
So,
we were
standing on
the road
not having
paid to
get in
and we're
watching Rory
McIlroy and
some of the
greats tee off
down the
second fairway
thinking,
that's really
good.
That's quite
good,
Johnny.
Guy comes
up from
inside the
course,
says,
would you
like a
ticket?
I said,
yeah.
He said,
how much?
He said,
no,
just have
it with
my blessing.
I'll
take it.
I said,
oh,
but there's
two of
us rapidly
thinking,
could I
get rid
of him
some way?
Here's a
fiver,
go and
have an
ice cream,
son.
And he
said,
well,
here,
we've
used one
of them
and we
haven't
used
the other.
Take
two.
He said,
maybe you
can tell
them that
you,
you know,
invent
some story.
He says,
by the way,
you have
to pretend
to be
Kieran
McCann.
to the
ticket
office.
And
Johnny's
woken up
by this
time,
because it's
almost 11
o'clock,
and he's
saying,
maybe you
could say
that we
got separated
and you
went in
and had
to come
out again.
Or maybe,
I don't know.
And I'm
thinking,
you know,
well,
I can't do
this.
I can't do
this.
I do love
my golf,
but I can't
do this.
So I just
went up and
I said,
Johnny,
here's my
strategy.
I'm just
going to be
completely and
utterly truthful
with the
guy.
I went
up to the
ticket booth
and just
said,
listen,
I'm not
going to
tell you
a word
of a lie.
Some
random
person
called
Kieran
McCann
has just
given me
this ticket
for free,
no money
exchanged
hands.
That's
not who
I am.
And I
can't use
the ticket
unless I
get one
for my
son here.
And the
guy goes,
you're
joking.
He said,
the ticket
sold out
nine hours
after they
went on
sale.
I said,
okay.
Well,
I said,
listen,
I was blessed
with a ticket
for five
minutes.
Take it,
give it to
somebody,
give it to
the next
person who
comes along
and inquires
about a
ticket.
He said,
what age
is your
son?
Fifteen.
Just a
moment.
Went,
printed off
a fresh
ticket,
gave it
to me.
Two of
us are
in watching
the British
Open
within five
minutes on
the 18th
and for
15 minutes
and it's a
precious 15
minutes if
you've got a
15-year-old
son.
I was on
a pedestal.
I was up
there.
How did
you do
that,
Dad?
Now,
where was
God in
that?
I think
God was
just honoring
me for
being honest
and not
valuing a
very,
very precious
Port Rush
Open ticket
ahead of
telling the
truth.
And what a
tremendous
example to
be able to
set to
my boy
that actually
telling the
truth,
you know,
okay,
sometimes it
doesn't work
in terms of
you don't
get what
you want,
but it's
always the
right thing
to do,
even to
be prepared
to hand
back a
ticket.
So that's
one story.
That's to
show you how
trivial it
can be,
except it's
not trivial
ever where
God is
involved or
God is
honored.
So you
be thinking
about what
story you
could tell.
Last one.
Do I still
have time for
one more?
That was
one.
No, no,
no,
one story.
I was
privileged to
go to
South Africa
with a
rugby tour
for the
school,
went as
chaplain,
but I
was flying
back because
we support
a charity
in Zimbabwe,
so I was
flying back
via there,
and I was
catching a
British Airways
flight back
home from
Joburg,
Joburg via
Heathrow up
to Edinburgh,
and I'd
booked extra
leg room
because I
have bad
knees from
playing rugby.
It's about
60 quid more,
and it was
one of those
lovely occasions
where there
was a woman
in the window
seat and a
completely free
seat beside
me, and I'm
sitting in the
aisle with my
legs stretched
out, and at
the very last
minute, this
young woman
bags all
everywhere,
comes in,
plants herself
down in the
seat, and
oh, just
made it,
just made
it, she
said.
And what a
good seat,
she said.
I didn't
even pay
for this.
And we're
chatting, I
said, well,
where are you
going?
She said, I'm
going to
Edinburgh.
I said, so
am I, so
am I.
And she
said, I
hate flying,
so do you
mind if I
grab your
leg during
take-off?
You have
to sometimes
suffer for
your ministry.
And then
she said, if
I fall asleep,
if I fall
asleep, I
might loll
over you.
Just feel
free to
nudge me
in the
ribs.
I said, what
are you
doing?
Are you
visiting
Edinburgh?
She said, no,
I'm leaving
South Africa
for the last
time.
We're
emigrating,
and I'm
going to
live in
Linlithgow.
She said,
what do you
do?
I said, well,
I'm going
home.
I said, I'm
a chaplain
at a school
in Edinburgh.
Oh, she
went, you
are God's
gift to
me.
Now, in
fairness, I
have heard
that one
or two
times in
life.
But what
had happened
is her
husband and
her had
just become
Christians
about a
year ago,
and they
were praying
in the
airport before
they came
that she
would be
sitting beside
a Christian
who she
could ask
about churches
to link up
with in
Edinburgh.
And yes, I
actually did
mention
Brunsfield,
but I
think they're
going to
St. John's
now in
Linlithgow,
because that's
where they
live.
Now, that's
just a little,
you know,
a couple
pray and
they get
a gobby
Irishman to
answer the
prayer and
sit beside.
God is
faithful.
God has
answered those
folks'
prayers.
He wanted
to be
faithful to
them and
get them
into a
fellowship
in Linlithgow.
The funny
thing is when
we got to
Heathrow, she
got through
security quicker
and she
was FaceTiming
her husband.
And she
was going,
yeah, and
I've met
this guy on
the plane and
he's just
God's gift.
And she
said, here
he is.
And there's
this big
really mountain
of a South
African guy
going, I'm
going, hi
Nick, I'm
married, three
children, nice
to meet you.
Yeah.
How has
God worked
in your life
faithfully?
How has God
been faithful
to you?
What story are
you going to
tell to a
person over
tea or coffee?
How are you
going to
encourage a
community of
faith and
encourage yourself
by remembering
God's covenant
to you?
And if you
really can't
think of
anything, then
as you forget
for a moment
about tomorrow,
you look
backwards and
as we were
singing, you
look at the
cross.
You look at
the cross and
you tell stories
and remember
Christ's
sacrifice for
me and for
you on the
cross, in
my place.
You remember
his words to
the thief on
the cross,
today you
will be with
me in
paradise.
And you
remember that
that was
for you.
Just as
actually those
old soldiers
walking down
the mile
four years
ago were
remembering
people that
they knew
friends who
had laid
down their
lives.
Christ, your
friend, Jesus,
your friend,
laid his
life down
for you.
He is
faithful and
remembers that
promise,
remembers the
promise that
he made,
that all who
come to him
and confess
their sins,
he is just
and will
forgive them
from all
unrighteousness.
Remember
that.
Write it
down somewhere,
write it on
your wall,
tie it in
your arm,
talk about
it as
you're
walking down
the street
with your
grandchildren
or kids
or your
friends or
whoever.
Look back
and remember
God's
faithfulness
and be
encouraged
for today
and take
hope in
tomorrow.
Let's
pray.
Father God,
God,
I pray
that actually
these next
five,
ten minutes
will be
refreshing,
will be
faith
inspiring,
will give
hope where
hope is
needed,
encouragement
where
encouragement
is needed,
challenge
where
challenge
is
needed.
And by
your spirit
you would
do your
work in
your way
in our
lives in
this place.
Amen.