Sunday, August 31, 2014


Greetings and good morning to all in the name of Jesus Christ

We have thought about this idea, and are going to reinstitute the Sunday Sermons in the group. Each one will be from a different preacher/pastor from the past up to and including present days. It is hoped that you find inspiration in these words. 

The Friend of Sinners
by Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) 

15 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at table in his house, many Publicans and sinners sat at table also with Jesus, and his disciples: for there were many that followed him. 16 And when the Scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with the Publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it, that he eateth and drinketh with Publicans and sinners? 
The Gospel According to Mark 2:15-16 (GNV Translation Ed. 1599)

The Son of God came and ate and drank with them. No doubt, he heard many words among them which pained his ears, saw many faces which shocked his eyes; faces of women who had lost all shame---faces of men hardened by cruelty, and greediness, and cunning, till God's image had been changed into the likeness of the fox and the serpent; and, worst of all, the greatest pain to him of all, he could see into their hearts, their immortal souls, and see all the foulness within them, all the meanness, all the hardness, all the unbelief in anything good or true. And yet he ate and drank with them. Make merry with them he could not: who could be merry in such company? but he certainly so behaved to them that they were glad to have him among them, though he was so unlike them in thought, and word, and look, and action.

Because, though he was so unlike them in many things, he was like them at least in one thing. If he could do nothing else in common with them, he could at least eat and drink as they did, and eat and drink with them too. Yes. He was the Son of man, the man of all men, and what he wanted to make them understand was, that, fallen as low as they were, they were men and women still, who were made at first in God's likeness, and who could be redeemed back into God's likeness again.

The only way to do that was to begin with them in the very simplest way; to meet them on common human ground; to make them feel that, simply because they were men and women, he felt for them; that, simply because they were men and women, he loved them; that, simply because they were men and women, he could not turn his back upon them, for the sake of his Father and their Father in heaven. If he had left those poor wretches to themselves; if he had even merely kept apart from their common every-day life, and preached to them, they would never have felt that there was still hope for them, simply because they were men and women. They would have said in their hearts, 'See; he will talk to us : but he looks down on us all the time. We are fallen so low, we cannot rise; we cannot mend. What is there in us that can mend? We are nothing but brutes, perhaps; then brutes we must remain. Heaven is for people like him, perhaps; but not for such as us. We are cut off from men. We have no brothers upon earth, no Father in heaven.' ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' 

Yes ; they would have said this ; for people like them will say it too often today

My friends, let us try to follow his steps ; let us remember all day long what it is to be men; that it is to have every one whom we meet for our brother in the sight of God; that it is this, never to meet any one, however bad he may be, for whom we cannot say, 'Christ died, for that man, and Christ cares for him still. He is precious in God's eyes; he shall be precious in mine also.' Let us take the counsel of the Gospel for this day, and love one another, not in word merely in  
doctrine, but in deed and in truth, really and actually; in our every-day lives and behaviour, words, looks in all of them let us be cordial, feeling, pitiful, patient, courteous. Masters with your workmen, teachers with your pupils, parents with your children, be cordial, and kind, and patient; respect every one, whether below you or not in the world's eyes. Never do a thing to any human being which may lessen his self-respect; which may make him think that you look down upon him, and so make him look down upon himself in awkwardness and shyness; or else may make him start off from you,  
angry and proud, saying. ' I am as good as you; and if you keep apart from me, I will from you; if you can do without me, I can do without you. I want none of your condescension.' It is not so. You cannot do without each other. We can none of us do without the other; do not let us make any one fancy that he can, and tempt him to wrap himself up in pride and surliness, cutting himself off from the communion of saints, and the blessing of being a man among men. 

And if any of you have a neighbour, or a relation fallen into sin, even into utter shame ; oh, for the sake of Him who ate and drank with publicans and sinners, never cast them off, never trample on them, never turn your back upon them. They are miserable enough already, doubt it not. Do not add one drop to their cup of bitterness. They are ashamed of themselves already, doubt it not. Do not you destroy in them what small grain of self-respect still remains. You fancy  they are not so. They seem to you brazen-faced, proud, impenitent. So did the publicans and harlots seem to those proud, blind Pharisees. Those pompous, self-righteous fools did not know what terrible struggles were going on in those poor sin-tormented hearts. Their pride had blinded them, while they were saying all along,  'It is we alone who see. This people, which knoweth not the law, is accursed.' Then came the Lord Jesus, the Son of man, who knew what was in man; and he spoke to them gently, cordially, humanly; and they heard him, and justified God, and were baptized, confessing  their sins ; and so, as he said himself, the publicans and harlots went into the kingdom of God before those proud, self-conceited Pharisees. 

Never trample on any soul, though it may be lying in the veriest mire; for that last spark of self-respect is as its only hope, its only chance ; the last seed of a new and better life; the voice of God which still whispers to it, 'You are not what you ought to be, and you are not what you can be. You are still God's child, still an immortal soul: you may rise yet, and fight a good fight yet, and conquer yet, and be a man once more, after the likeness of God who made you, and Christ who died for you!'  Oh, why crush that voice in any heart? If you do, the poor creature is lost, and lies where he or she falls, and never tries to rise again. Rather bear and forbear; hope all things, believe all things, endure all things; so you will, as St. John tells you in the Epistle, know that you are of the truth, in the true and right road, and will assure your hearts before God. For this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and believe really that he is now what he always was, the friend of publicans and sinners, and love one another as he gave us commandment. That was Christ's spirit; the fairest, the noblest spirit upon earth; the spirit of God whose mercy is over all his works; and hereby shall we know that Christ abideth in us, by his having given us the same spirit of pity, charity, fellow-feeling and love for every human being .

And now, I will also give you one lesson to carry home with you a lesson which if we all could really believe and obey, the world would begin to mend from tomorrow, and every other good work on earth would prosper and multiply tenfold, a hundredfold ay, beyond all our fairest dreams. And my lesson is this. When you go out from this church into those crowded streets, remember that there is not a soul in them who is not as precious in God's eyes as you are; not a little dirty ragged child whom Jesus, were he again on earth, would not take up in his arms and bless ; not a publican or a   harlot with whom, if they but asked him, he would not eat and drink now, on this Sunday, the 8th of June, 1856, as certainly as he did beyond the seas, eighteen hundred years ago. Therefore do to all who are in want of your help as Jesus would do to them if he were here; as Jesus is doing to them already: for he is here among us now, and for ever seeking and saving that which was lost; and all we have to do is to believe that, and work on, sure that he is working at our head, and that though we cannot see him, he sees us; and then all will prosper at last, for this brave old earth whereon we are living now, and for that far braver new heaven and new earth whereon we shall live hereafter.

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