The St Mark's e-Pulpit
We in St Mark's believe in the Holy Trinity, that Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary, was crucified for our sins, rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven from where he will return to reign for evermore. We believe that our salvation comes only through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and our acceptance of Him as our Lord and Saviour.
Rev Diane Hobson BA (Hons) BD (Hons) was inducted on Thursday 28 October 2010 and was "preached in" on Sunday 31 October.
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| Rev Diane Hobson |
Diane attended Middlesex Polytechnic and graduated BA (Hons) in Social Science, before attending Exeter University where she took a teaching qualification. She also attended Northern College and studied Special Education. She taught Geography as well as Special Needs classes before attending Aberdeen University where she graduated BD (Hons) in 1997. She trained for the ministry in Aberdeen, Portlethen, Stonehaven, Durris, Drumoak and Cove.
Her first charge was in rural Perthshire and she spent time as a Prison Chaplain in Tayside as well as a locum in Broughty Ferry. Before being called to St Mark's she spent five years as minister of St Columba's in Glenrothes.
There can be no substitute for hearing God's word than to be in Church listening to the minister preach, Sunday by Sunday. This is not always possible however and on this page Diane provides a summary of her weekly sermon. Summaries of previous sermons are available on our e-Pulpit archive page .
15th January 2012.
Did you call?
Readings: - 1 Samuel 3: 1-9; Luke 2: 41-51
Why were you searching for me?” Jesus asked His parents, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
If a young teenager today gave the same response as Jesus, to parents, after they'd been hunting for him for over 3 days in a busy city, we may expect he would at least be told off for being rude.
It's not helped by hearing that in complete contrast, hundreds of years before Jesus, a teenager (of the same age) called Samuel was incredibly obedient to his master. He even slept in the tabernacle close at hand to hear his elderly master call out for help. He was so obedient he rose instantly he heard his name called.
One of the rare accounts of the young Jesus is puzzling and raises many questions!
Let's be honest it’s almost a relief when we finally read, 'Then He, Jesus went down to Nazareth with (His parents) and was obedient to them.' (Luke 2:51 (NIV))
Luke records that Jesus's parents always went to the temple in Jerusalem around Passover. This was the time when the Hebrew people celebrated, and still do, God’s rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. This is the time when they remembered that a perfect lamb was sacrificed and its blood placed on the door so that death was defeated.
Does this clue us into the future role of Jesus in GOD's plan?
The fact that both Samuel and Jesus were in the main Hebrew worship building of their times, seems an amazing coincidence or is it?
Samuel was not in the temple in Jerusalem, he was in the tented Tabernacle. He was sleeping near the Ark of the Covenant that contained the original 10 commandments of God, in Shiloh. Shiloh being the centre of religious life for over 300 years until the first Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon.
Jesus was in the temple in Jerusalem though this was the second temple; Solomon’s having been destroyed, and rebuilt by Herod.
In Jesus's time the temple was as the Tabernacle in Shiloh had been hundreds of years before, “The place” where worship, feasts, festivals and various sacrifices took place. It was the dwelling of God on earth, God's house. It was absolutely vital in maintaining a good relationship with God.
To understand some of the thinking of Jesus's day we need to understand that GOD's law, the 10 commandments, was very ancient to Jesus's society.
The difficulty the academics, religious authorities and groups had since well before Jesus was born was how to ensure people kept the law given to a nomadic people now they were settled in the land. It was vital to know this in order to keep a good relationship with God as a nation.
Two main groups of thought had developed.
There were the Pharisees who believed that the principles of the law had to be applied not only to the temple but also to contemporary life. How many different versions of that viewpoint do we find in the universal church today? We may have expected they would have got on well with Jesus whose view of the law and how we live was and is ‘love God with everything and love your neighbour as yourself.’ However some of their ways and fears made ordinary life difficult and they did criticise the adult Jesus. Not the teenager, the teenager Jesus found favour with all people!
After they tried to trap the adult Jesus He challenged some of the Pharisees by saying “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” (Matthew 12: 3, 5-8 (NIV))
The second influential group in Jewish society was the Sadducees. They believed that what was done in the temple, human temple rituals, sacrifices, feasts and worship were paramount in keeping the law, keeping a right relationship with God. What people did during the week didn't matter so much. They too were critical of the adult Jesus.
Were both their strict ways killing people's relationships with God?
We do not know if Jesus, when a teenager, was listening to Sadducees or Pharisees. We do know He was sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. We also know that everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
The questions though are: - Was He impressed with their answers? Was He learning how to see GOD’s ways and laws from a human viewpoint? Interestingly we do know Jesus believed firmly in God His Father by that time in His life.
Going back to Samuel;
Samuel didn't know God, not in the personal way that was to be his privilege for much of the rest of his life yet he'd grown up in the Tabernacle all of his life. It's strange that Samuel didn't know God, had Eli, the high priest, not introduced him to God over the years? Samuels’s society was in trouble too. The words ‘in those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions’ sums it up. People weren't listening to God. Plus even the main priests in the Tabernacle had sullied the purpose and integrity of the worship at the Tabernacle and Eli did nothing about it because the main culprits were His sons!
‘And the Lord said to Samuel:’ “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. ...... For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about.” His sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. “Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.”
Disobedience and disregard of God plus Eli's inaction to rectify matters meant no one even recognised God's voice not even Eli at first!
So was God about to let it carry on?
King David had not even been born! The promise of a Messiah had not taken place yet! A messiah who would bring about a new way of relating to God in a more personal way. A way that would mean the believer would become a Tabernacle, a Temple of God in whom God would reside through the Holy Spirit.
So does that mean when God called Samuel by name God was thinking of those of us who would come to believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God and who would become the temples / homes of God? Was Jesus’s question, “Why were you searching for me?” Not so much rude as going to the heart of the matter? Was He genuinely surprised they hadn't known? Was He inviting them to think? After all fear, panic, despair blocks our thinking! “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
Why had He to be? We love to be with the ones we love, was that why He had to be there? Did He do the very human thing and just forget time? Is this rare record of His youth showing us His devotion to His Father?
Are we to understand that he hadn't realised His parents hadn't understood who He was? Does it show us that Jesus still had to learn more about human life from an adult point of view too, before He could enter His main ministry?
So many questions. How are these incidents in two teenage lives relevant to us? Are we like Samuel and need to learn how to recognise GOD’s communications to us? Will we be like Jesus and spend time in the company of God so we can learn and recognise that God is communicating with us? Will we think through the consequences of being GOD's Temple on earth?
The choice as always is ours.
God Bless you.
Footprints
One night a man had a dream, He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life. This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it.
Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me?
The LORD replied, my precious, precious child, I Love you and I would never leave you! During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.
(Anon.)