If being a Christian does not change you… then what is the point?
ABOUT Father McKenzie
Is a fictional character taken from The Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby”. In his other persona he runs the CREATIVE WRITING GROUP that will be meeting at a virtual Zoom room for the time being. Father McKenzie is in no way affiliated with The Church of England (or any other denomination) and he is just a spiritual maverick who believes that he has a mission from God to help other people by explaining what all this GOD & Jesus fuss is about. The views he expresses about anything, are his own and no one else. A firm believer in The Father. Son & Holy Spirit since age 11 (and possibly before that) he see’s his ministry as important as anybody else’s, believes that all of us are from the same source, none of us are broken, and that we all are brothers and sisters in this life. He has a lot to say about “psycho-logic” as taught by Sydney Banks & the multitude of people at 3PGC. This is a non-religious group BUT through adopting their 3 Principles I have a new way of looking at God and His world.
19th February 2020. – My Pilot Sermon
My sermons ain’t for scholars… They’re about how I feel about things, not what I think about them. Now that makes things tricky, because when you try to describe feelings with mere words it all comes undone. Your writings (or spoken word) has to become what the world calls “Art”. The “ART” points you to a feeling, and it can be a combination of disjointed words with colours, or pictures, or verse, or a song (or a melody) and so on ad-infinitum. I will use all of those and more. I May use silence. White NOISE. Indeed, Anything that works.
You are very strongly advised to work through this initial sermon, it will give you a great insight into where I am coming from. I am NOT a Head Christian (I did not learn all I know about GOD from a book). I am a HEART Christian, and this very first sermon is about what that means and feels like.
My prayer is that you ARE / OR WILL BECOME a heart Christian and then as brothers, we will live strongly, and face a doubting fearful world, giving them hope light and encouragement because God’s People can easily become overwhelmed with what we must call LIFE.
Now please read on, and imagine my voice is addressing only you, in the moment, now…
There are some people with hearts the size of a medicine ball and others with hearts the size of a walnut. I’m gonna ignore the nuts for a bit, and dwell on the medicinal ones.
These ‘Medics’ so much want to help, care for, soothe, nurse, cure, lift, encourage other people with whom they claim “a connection” (though “The World” claims that no such connection actually exists – because they cannot see or experience it). These people are not ’do-gooders’ they are positive, well-meaning, sincere, AND spreaders of a rare thing called HOPE. Nothing wrong with that at all. Despite their desire to be all good to everyone else, these people can often be sad, and downcast to the point of being depressed (when they are in their own company – others regard them as the life and sole of any gathering). Over a lifetime their “huge efforts” CAN appear to account for very little gain. This makes them feel worthless, and even more unhappy. THESE PEOPLE NEED TO REALISE THAT THEY are the “salt of the earth”, they give human life its unique flavour and spirit. These people are Angels, usually spiritual, but not necessarily Christian (though a lot of them are). THEY ARE the good Samaritans that Jesus described in his parable, they will not pass by on the other side of the road! Often they put themselves at great risk helping others. I am thinking of Life Boat Crews, who go out in ‘Force 10’ gales, in hope of saving a lone ‘yacht’s-man’ in peril on the sea. (I can hear the hymn in my head now)
When you feel frustrated, and downcast, then you need love and support. Often, when these people get really, really low, and they can bare it no longer. They turn to prayer and ask for help from a God they often don’t know, and have not considered their feelings for. Post prayer they get to feel uplifted, have more power added, feel much more greatly understood & appreciated, and feel a great sense of sheer relief. It’s almost like ‘a great load’ has been lifted off their shoulders. AND YET… Prayer is often their last resort, and not their first… Weird, until you realise they have enormous faith in their own (OFTEN futile) efforts, and no faith at all in God’s. The other big thing where they completely miss the point is that prayer makes no difference to God whatsoever, but it changes them a great deal. All the difference that they FEEL (and it is very real) comes from within themselves. People have trouble with this, because they think that they need to describe this to others (to ‘sort of’ justify themselves). We are back where I started from, EXPLAINING THINGS THAT YOU FEEL, IS VERY DIFFICULT (if not impossible) IN WORDS ALONE. Doesn’t all of the above writing now feel… W e i r d, inn compo hence able, ???
Why often do these Earth-Bound Angel’s efforts fail? Their starter premise is that everyone that they meet is, just like them, and obviously the nuts are not, and that’s just a starter for ten. Every single one of us is living in a very separate, very different world, which is mainly of our own minds creation. (more abut this here)
The Two Armies
A lot of people have written the devil off. Well, to be fair, they wrote God off first, and then decided that poor old Beelzebub was even more irrelevant. But for us “nine tenths believers” we see this as very dangerous, because everyone is now “off guard” and evil slyly creeps into our lives, more, and more and more. Cynics say “well mankind is a thoroughly bad lot anyway”, it’s inevitable that we chose (in our own best self-interests) bad over good. We once had a “Salvation Army”, now we have got a “Damnation Army” and LIVING under the age of human rights, privacy, picky non-discrimination, and general ineffectiveness to actually getting anything done.….. This inevitably leads us down the dark, dingy, forlorn, road of indifference. A place where everything is nothing and everybody is a nobody unless they are a somebody. Good heavens look at the time!! This feeling is deep, deep, deep, deep, APATHY. Nobody can be bothered to describe how that feels! because we all are beginning to find out just how that feels!!
So, here we are, lost in words (what does all this actually mean) with a few indescribable feelings. Told yer! This sermon stuff ain’t easy, oh it can be! You can stand in your Pulpit and quote that “John said this, Paul said that, Freud agreed NOT!, Darwin said, DICKENS wrote, Wesley did, Martin Luther hammered his nails creed…” You can waffle on for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours BUT WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO KNOW GOD, FOR HEAVENS SAKE, GET TO THE POINT MATE!!
You, You, You don’t know…., do you!!!!!! You’re one of those “Blind Guides” that Jesus warned us about!! We are blind to the truth and we want to see, for God’s sake man! We want to live, We want to live, I want to live!! (Thank you to Dave Bowie for his song The Cygnet Committee for which I am eternally grateful)
Then there’s my take,
We all know God, and we all know how it feels to connect with HIM. We are just awful at telling others, or describing it. My next sermon is very short..
NO GOD = NO LOVE
KNOW GOD = KNOW LOVE
Job done – 10 minute service, off home now!!
Notes About the Author
I trained as a Baptist Lay Preacher 42 years ago. I have preached on The South East Essex Baptist Lay Preacher’s Association patch. I had sole responsibility for ALL services held at POUND LANE MISSION (under the Moderation of The Rev David Saunders – The Baptist Pastor of Laindon Baptist Church) I conducted 1 Wedding and 1 funeral (Grave Side bit only). Pastor David was present in person (for legal reasons) at both of these events. I regard myself now as “non-denominational” and a free spirit who is a BROTHER to everyone who calls Jesus their friend and saviour. Hallelujah!!! I finally saw the greatest light of this world – there is no one else more or less spiritual than me. God lives in us all. We are ALL ONE. As St. Paul says “We are ALL one Body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” shout it from the roof tops! Jesus took away our blindness and made us all see.
The Churches are all closed for public worship right now
And you can hear the cacophony of voices everywhere in Christendom arguing about what is to be done, when to do it, who will be in charge off it, what platform will we use, can we have music – can we not have music blah blah blah! I reckon that the corona virus will have come and gone before they get their act together! Which leaves me with a problem… All those sermons that I write whilst darning my socks. This Sunday the Lectionary says John 9 for the service where Jesus makes the blind man see. Being ‘Blind’ Jesus says, is being unaware of sin, if you can See (you claim to be not Blind) then your sin remans because YOU KNOW IT’s There (but you have a blind spot and do not actually see it). It’s a beautiful passage BUT long and has lots of repetition. Bit of an edit, and here we are. The voices are just Local people and the song is an ad-hoc recording of Noel Richards playing part of one of his marvellous Christian Hymns “BEING IN YOUR PRESENCE”.
Whilst no one can GO to church here is my bit at keeping you guys happy and sane in a mad chaotic world.
The video below has PowerPoint slides the have been ‘timed’ to give you enough time to fully read the text on the slide. I am a slow, deliberate reader and & you are very likely to be a much quicker reader than I, so can I ask you to just be a little bit patient if nothing seems to happen before slides move on to the next one. Thank You.
FATHER McKENZIE’s SERMON
Here is the intriguing point. That very last 3 verses of the John 9 Chapter.
Joh 9:39 Then Jesus said, “I have come into this world to judge it, so that those who are blind may see and so that those who see may become blind.”
Joh 9:40 Some of the Pharisees who were near him overheard this and asked him, “We aren’t blind, too, are we?”
Joh 9:41 Jesus told them, “If you were blind, you would not have any sin. But now that you insist, ‘We see,’ your sin still exists.”
The trick is to prayerfully reflect on ALL the verses in Chapter 9 that went before and CHECK your understanding of the passage that you have just read. “I have come into this world to judge it, so that those who are blind may see, and so that those who see, may become blind.”
The Jewish nation thought that if a child was born blind then the baby was that way because of SIN. THEY have judged the baby on the evidence of WHAT? Jesus obviously does not recognise MAN’s right to judge, and say that someone is sinful. Jesus declares I HAVE COME TO JUDGE THE WORLD (not you). Now this takes a bit of a leap, but I hope you can do it. THE BLIND Man represents everyone that the world has Judged. The world makes them aware of their sin, regardless of its own great hoard of sin. By making the BLIND MAN see, Jesus removes The World’s Judgement from him and imposes His own. In the Eye’s of Jesus the man is now without sin. (For elsewhere Jesus says ‘The son of man has the power to forgive sins.”) Just take a moment out now, and let that bit sink in. Deep Breath….
Consider Now: – “so that those who see may become blind.”
The world contains the cold hearted, Judgemental people who cannot but help themselves. They go indifferently through all their lives saying “This man is wrong!” “This man is right!” “This thing you do is wrong!” “This thought you have is very wrong!” “This thought you have complies exactly to what we think! good boy, good girl, you are wonderful… because WE SEE you are right!!” The WE SEE brigade judge everyone that they meet AS IF they were sinless. (they put themselves in the Position of Jesus/God). BUT THEY ARE NOT ‘free from sin’ BECAUSE ALL of them HAVE sinned! This goes right back to GENESIS when sin first came into the world, all mankind has sinned, and have but one hope of salvation.
Just take a moment out now and let that bit sink in.
Deep Breath….We really at his point have no need to even “DIG DEEPER” into verses 40 & 41 as I am sure you can plainly see that Jesus exposes the WE SEE brigade for the hypocrites that they really are!!! How very dare they judge others. Their carefully hidden SIN is now on show to everyone. Notes: SIN, just means “falling short”, if it’s a little then, I am sorry, it is still SIN. Remember Jesus said
- Love your God with all of your being
- Love your neighbour as yourself
He replaced the whole of The Law (The Ten Commandments) with these 2 simple commands. The Gospel is NOT hard to understand, you do not need a degree, or years in theology classes. None of it is rocket science, and yet understanding it, has great power to set you free to live life to the full. Because you will realise the greatest thing that you will ever learn…
GOD LOVES YOU – amen to that.
Start at the beginning – You know that makes sense.
You have looked at The Bible many times and I know that feeling. “DAUNTED” It’s a book that is really a complex Library, of small, very ancient, largely incomprehensible writings by people who we think have nothing too say to the modern world. And it is easy to ‘know’ why you feel like this. There is this thing called RELIGION that insists that it’s highly trained intellectuals are the only people that understand it. Go to any church service and one of ‘them’ reads The Bible (called scripture) to you and another one explains it to you (called a sermon). Prayers are said for you (cos the ones you make up yourself are NOT Right! It’s a totally passive experience where you do absolutely nothing except Pay Attention. The Internet changes all that. You are an inquisitive adult. You have a vast Library at your keyboard on the Wiki-ternet. YOU (not someone acting on your behalf ) can look up anything you like, and weigh up the facts. This is a common INTERNET DEVOTEE concept. It doesn’t work, because getting to know God, is a spiritual experience, and NOT a computer based learning exercise. What did he say? (The Clergy are very fond of rhetorical Questions) Knowing God involves knowing your self very, very well. If you pick up The Bible, yes, you can read about a lot of dull dry history, read a lot of quaint stories that the writer tells to illustrate his point. BUT THE BEST THING is that you can read about yourself, and what you are like, AND that is what makes it the masterpiece that it is.
LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION? “What does a murderer look like?” Let’s not overthink this as that’s very bad for you.
- Another quick question. “What does a thief look like?”
- Another quick question. “What does a embezhler look like?”
- Another quick question. “What does a Prostitute look like?”
- Another quick question. “What does a drug pusher look like?”
We could go on…. BUT the answer is obvious “They look just like you.“
BUT you are none of these things. (Praise God!) What is it that make you avoid these hellish occupations? You have built in beliefs and standards. Where did they come from?
You have a great concept of what GOOD and BAD is… How is that?
My theory is that, although we are all so very different in the way we look, and think, there are some UNIVERSAL concepts that bind the whole of humanity into one big gigantic family. Yes! We are all Brothers and Sisters. WE ALL ORIGINATED FROM A COMMON SOURSE. A COMMON ENERGY. THERE IS A ONENESS ABOUT HUMANITY!
You call it what you like, a label makes no difference whatsoever, BUT I call it God and the way to Know Him is to know you.
The Bible will tell you that we all started with ONE MAN called ADAM and one Woman called EVE. In other words the writer believed that we had one common source. Yep, we are all brothers and sisters. DO you see how you can understand your own thoughts and beliefs by reading this book. Oh I hope so.
My Title said about going back to the very beginning. Yes. back BEFORE ADAM & EVE. What is there? NOTHING! A void! Something humans fear more than anything else. Nothingness. Try it. Sit still and TRY to be quiet. Doesn’t work does it. Your mind (like nature) abhors a vacuum and before even a minute is up, you have had a thought about something. This thought triggered off several sub-thoughts and away you go, filling the calm, quiet and silence with seemingly endless “mind chatter”. ANYTHING to prevent emptiness, stillness and quiet. Your mind has to know all the time that it is ALIVE and so will never be still and quiet until life ceases. This is why the dead rest in peace. Its a peace that they never ever experienced had in their lifetime. You see SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS come from considering THE BIBLE. Your mind prefers MATERIAL THOUGHTS all the time. The Bible focuses your mind upon things that are NOT of this world. They are notions, dreams, visions, feelings. Where do these come from? This will surprise you…
EVERYTHING COMES FROM WITHIN YOURSELF
That common source that I spoke about earlier, that bit of all men that is the same, universal, common, knows right from wrong, is caring, emotional, loving… this is “the other you” (some say the real you) that over time (read life) you forgot existed. This other you dwells in your CONSCIOUS mind (The little Mind). When you are AWAY in your thoughts, thinking your thoughts. The other YOU does a ‘take over’. This other YOU, is called the un-conscious mind. He is The Auto Pilot that “RUNS” pre-learned trusted programs of behaviour (which we are told it learned before and up to the age of Seven. BUT ALL THESE PROGRAMS are behaviours that were learnt from OTHER. PEOPLE. AND OTHER PEOPLE ARE NOT ALWAYS RIGHT ARE THEY! Some times you will find yourself self, saying and doing, things and you do not know why. You may NOT even know, or remember that you did, or said these things, let alone know why. See how much you are learning about yourself? Time to read the good Book!!
BUT FIRST YOU HAVE TO KNOW how to read it, so I am going to read it and tell you how you should be reading it, so learning and teaching and Bible all in one go! Up For That?
Good!
Back in 1969 there was a band called The Moody Blues. Each of their first seven albums contained poetry by the legend that is Graeme Edge. This is one of them that shows that the young Graeme Edge knew what we are talking about now – what a shame that no one dared to explain it to the rest of us…..
If you can fully grasp what Graeme Edge is telling you in this vey short poem, then your journey is over. You are enlightened. You know that it is all about sacrificing yourself and becoming whole with everything around you. There is no ME anymore just a glorious us. A oneness, unity, everything as the man in the poem says is in perfect balance.
a little picture to show you where the balanced you functions all the thorough the rest of a wonderful magical life full of wonder and surprises.
You find this person by looking INSIDE, allowing the INSIDE-out.
The Moody Blues Lyrics
“The Actor”
The curtain rises on the scene
With someone shouting to be free
The play unfolds before my eyes
There stands the actor who is me
The sleeping hours takes this part
Through traffic, telephones and fear
Put out your problems with the cat
Escape until a bell you hear
Our reasons are the same
But there’s no-one we can blame
For there’s nowhere we need go
And the only truth we know comes so easily
The sound I have heard in your hello
Oh, oh, darling, you’re almost part of me
Oh, oh, darling, you’re all I’ll ever see
Ah, ah, ah
It’s such a rainy afternoon
No point in going anywhere
The sounds just drift across my room
I wish this feeling I could share
It’s such a rainy afternoon
She sits and gazes from her window
Her mind tries to recall his face
The feeling deep inside her grows
Our reasons are the same
But there’s no-one we can blame
For there’s nowhere we need go
And the only truth we know comes so easily
The sound I have heard in your hello
Oh, oh, darling, you’re almost part of me
Oh, oh, darling, you’re all I’ll ever see
The sound I have heard in your hello
Oh, oh, darling, you’re all I’ll ever see
Oh, oh, darling, you’re almost part of me
Ah, ah, ah
for there is nowhere you need go, and the only truth we know, comes so easily…
So, here we are at the start of creation.
God does no work. The material world (the form from formless) was created just by God speaking. He said “Let there be light, and there was, and it was good.” Form from nothing purely because God spoke the word. You might like to just stop here and think about this.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning, the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 He existed in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made.
Joh 1:4 In him was life, and that life brought light to humanity.
Joh 1:5 And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.
Now I did that little bit of prep with you about The Creation does this opening chapter of John’s Gospel make a lot more sense than it did before? I hope so.
What John is saying is that Jesus was with God when the world was created. Do. you see why Jesus said about himself “I am the alpha and the Omega.” He means of course that He was there at the beginning of all time and He will stile there when time ends. Man invented time. It is an illusion. Time only exists for Man it does NOT exist for God. This is why you cannot understand how he can be everywhere all at once. You do not understand a fundamental of what the creator has done. This is produce everything from nothing.
So, What is this new world like?
John Lennon sang of a “Glass Onion” and it’s a great metaphor. Imagine an Onion that is made out of glass, that is so pure and so translucent . YES LAYERS definitely exist, but when each layer has been added, you cannot see where the older layer ends, and the newer layer begins. Layer, upon layer, upon layer, upon layer, and yet, all appearing as one. Humanity is like that. The generations build this onion and ONLY God knows where everyone is. They are all here. You just do not know where to look. Yes, God is a mystery, but one that you do not need to solve. He told you “I AM here for you, even until the end of the age.” God is but a thought away. Some call it prayer, but it’s just a social thought.
Next we go to the garden of Eden to see what man is…
The Creation of Man and Woman – [edit some verses omitted purely because they do not add anything to the point being made]
Gen 2:7 So the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground, breathed life into his lungs, and the man became a living being.
Gen 2:8 The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, toward the east, where he placed the man whom he had formed.
Gen 2:9 The LORD God caused every tree that is both beautiful and suitable for food to spring up out of the ground. The tree of life was also in the middle of the garden, along with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Gen 2:15 The LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden in order to have him work it and guard it.
Gen 2:16 The LORD God commanded the man: “You may freely eat from every tree of the garden,
Gen 2:17 but you are not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because you will certainly die during the day that you eat from it.”
Gen 2:18 Later, the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a companion that is a suitable match for him.”
Gen 2:21 so the LORD God caused a deep sleep to overshadow the man. When the man was asleep, he removed one of the man’s ribs and closed up the flesh where it had been.
Gen 2:22 Then the LORD God formed the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.
Gen 2:23 So the man exclaimed, “At last! This is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. This one will be called ‘Woman,’ because she was taken from Man.”
Gen 2:25 Even though both the man and his wife were naked, they were not ashamed about it.
Man made out of dust (hence dust to dust ashes to ashes at funerals) and woman created using part of the man. It says a rib but because the source was dust it could have been any part of him. What’s really important is that both sexes are created from the same source. Dust. The sexes are truly equal and their is NO real difference between them. Those of a more ‘Earthy’ nature, may snigger and disagree with this, BUT in the beginning of everything, Man and Woman, and every other form, were created entirely equal. No better, No worse, No richer, No poorer, none sick or healthier, everything was the same. Bound by God to be whole for ever more. The wisdom of the ages is right here. Read and re-read it until the penny drops, the latch clicks, the light comes on. You are now on the threshold of a dream.
Gen 3:2 “We may eat from the trees of the garden,” the woman answered the serpent,
Gen 3:3 “but as for the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You are not to eat from it, nor are you to touch it, or you will die.'”
Gen 3:4 “You certainly will not die!” the Shining One told the woman.
Gen 3:5 “Even God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you’ll become like God, knowing good and evil.”
This is where us humans forget that we are all from the same source. God made ALL the living creatures from the dust and we in disobeying God fully learned the original SIN. The SIN of judgement. Take a time out to think about this one. If everything that lives, all comes from the same source, then which of the living things can judge any other living thing? The world goes from unity to disunity in one small almost insignificant act.
Gen 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree produced good food, was attractive in appearance, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. Then she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate some, too.
Gen 3:7 As a result, they both understood what they had done, and they became aware that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Gen 3:8 When they heard the voice of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden during the breeze of the day, the man and his wife concealed themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 So the LORD God called out to the man, asking him, “Where are you?”
Gen 3:10 “I heard your voice in the garden,” the man answered, “and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid from you.”
Gen 3:11 “Who told you that you are naked?” God asked. “Did you eat fruit from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?”
Do you get it? This entertaining children’s story told in almost unlikely and almost unbelievable way, Illustrates very clearly that men JUDGE because they come to see others as different from them and not from the same source.
everything is made from elements. Tiny weeny particles of matter that are identifyable in a thing the scientists call “The Periodic Table”. Each of these things are made of atoms that are all identical to each other. An atom has at it core a large particle which has negative energy. Around this much smaller particles whizz round in orbit for they are positive and are in balace. Attracted to the core but seperated from it by the speed of their travel Around it. centrafugal force is the key, counter balancing the otherwise overwhelming attraction of the core. Their are neutron as well which have balanced energy. Part positive and in equal part negative so each cAncels the other one out, and here is a particle that neither attracts or repels. All in Nature is well. Of course, if you split the atom, well, we all know what happens then. Chain reaction. the end oF all form within its radius.
Righteousness, Bigotry, Betrayal, Murder, Theft all came into being this day. I bet you can see where we are going next? Spot on!! Moses and the 10 commandments. The birth of the “thou shalt notters” sorry nutters!!
to be continued…