Radical sayings of Jesus:
Sell all that you own

Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield, Sunday 26 August 2018

I’ve got one hand in my pocket

I hope I wasn’t sen as disrespectful.

During the first hymn I was praising God with one hand in my pocket. then when in line to receive communion I was chucling to myself at the antics of the curate’s children.

Firstly the hand…

Today was a wet morning. We walked to church in weather that was wet. My hands were wet with walking with crutches, I was dressed for the wet, but I was not prepared for the cold: After all this is August. We are used to August rain, especially at Bank Holiday, but August rain should be warmer than this. I realised, halfway through a hymn of praise, that I had one hand in my pocket and the other one was holdinh on an elbow crutch. I removed the hand from the pocket, realised the hand was cold, and replaced it. At other times in the service the other hand was in a pocket. My stance was casual, my hands were cold, but in my heart I was praising God. You cannot always judge by appearence.

…and the children

The children were in line, standing in line (or rather jumping for joy) waiting to recieve a tiny morsel of bread from their father, the curate. I was not laughing at them, I was chucling inwardly to my self about the aptness of seeing children being joyful awaiting something from their father. Shouldn’t we be grateful, joyful even, as we await something from God? Some have such a solemn look at communion that if they were standing next to someone with idigestion it would be hard to tell which was which. What is wrong when celebrating communion from looking like you are celebrating.

Better to come like children, especially joyful expectant ones.

Dogs and tennis balls

Bev, preaching, told us about dog training. Her dog when playing fetch would bring the tennis ball back but then in his enthusiasm to fetch again not drop the ball. Not yet understanding that in order to have fun he had to first drop the ball he had in his mouth.

This, Bev said, is like many people who hold on to what they have so tightly that they find it hard to get a hold at what is important. The rich young ruler, in the passage starting at Luke 18:18, wanted to know what to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to sell all he had, and the rich man went away sad.

The point here is not that riches are wrong. Jesus himself was supported by others with money, but money was the thing that was keeping this individual from God, his grip on his vast riches was preventing him from getting hold on something more important.

What keeps us from God, our habits and addictions, may not seem like a big thing, just one more cigarette, one more peek at that dodgy internet site, if God is saying put it down he means put it down.

Ask yourself, are you holding on to something that is preventing you getting hold of something better from God? Are you prepared to let go?