Reuben's Theme: "Stop Whinging!"

(3 before Lent) - EVENSONG 1830hrs. at Saint George's - Cullercoats.
Sunday, 12th. February 2006 Anno Domini.
Morning Mass: 2 Kings: 5.1-14 Ps: 30 1 Corinthians: 9.24-end Mark: 1.40-end.
Evensong: Psalm: 6. Numbers: 20.2-13 Philippians: 3.7-end

February 12, 2006 Cycle B 3 before Lent.

COLLECT
Almighty God, who alone can bring order to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity:
give your people grace; so to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, among the many changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.


Morning Mass:

FIRST READING
2 Kings 5.1-14

A reading from the second book of Kings.
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favour with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy.
Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife.
She said to her mistress, 'If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.'
So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said.
And the king of Aram said, 'Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.' He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments.
He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, 'When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.'
When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, 'Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.'
But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, 'Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.'
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house.
Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, 'Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.'
But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, 'I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!
Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?' He turned and went away in a rage.
But his servants approached and said to him, 'Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, "Wash, and be clean"?'
So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

PSALM
Psalm 30

R O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.
or
R You have made us, Lord, as strong as the mountains.

1 I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have lifted me up and have not let my enemies triumph over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.
3 You brought me up, O Lord, from the dead; you restored my life as I was going down to the grave. R
4 Sing to the Lord, you servants of his; give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness.
5 For his wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye, his favour for a lifetime.
6 Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning. R
7 While I felt secure, I said, 'I shall never be disturbed. You, Lord, with your favour, made me as strong as the mountains.'
8 Then you hid your face, and I was filled with fear. R
9 I cried to you, O Lord; I pleaded with the Lord, saying,
10 'What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the Pit? will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness?
11 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me; O Lord, be my helper.' R
12 You have turned my wailing into dancing; you have put off my sack-cloth and clothed me with joy;
13 Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing; O Lord my God, I will give you thanks for ever. R

SECOND READING
1 Corinthians 9.24-27

A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.
Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one.
So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.


GOSPEL
Mark 1.40 45

Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.
A leper came to Jesus begging Him, and kneeling he said to Him, 'If you choose, you can make me clean.'
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I do choose. Be made clean!'
Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
After sternly warning him He sent him away at once, saying to him, 'See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.'
But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to Him from every quarter.


POST COMMUNION

Merciful Father,
who gave Jesus Christ to be for us the bread of life,
that those who come to him should never hunger:
draw us to the Lord in faith and love,
that we may eat and drink with him
at his table in the kingdom,
where he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Evensong:

Psalm 30

1. I will magnify thee O Lord for thou hast set me up : and not made my foes to triumph over me.
2. O Lord my God I cried unto thee : and thou hast healèd me.
3. Thou Lord hast brought my soul out of hell : thou hast kept my life from them that go down to the pit.
4. Sing praises unto the Lord O ye saints of his : and give thanks unto him, for a remembrance of his holiness.
5. For his wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye, and in his pleasure is life : heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
6. And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be removed : thou Lord of thy goodness hast made my hill so strong.
7. Thou didst turn thy face from me : and I was troubled.
8. Then cried I unto thee O Lord : and gat me to my Lord right humbly.
9. What profit is there in my blood : when I go down to the pit?
10. Shall the dust give thanks unto thee : or shall it declare thy truth?
11. (2nd Part) Hear O Lord and have mercy upon me : Lord be thou my helper.
12. Thou hast turned my heaviness into joy : thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.
13. Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing : O my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.



FIRST READING Numbers. 20:2-13 (NRSV)

2* Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron.
3 The people quarrelled with Moses and said, "Would that we had died when our kindred died before the LORD!
4 Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here?
5 Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is no water to drink."
6 Then Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting; they fell on their faces, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them.
7 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
8 Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them; thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.
9 So Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he had commanded him.
10 Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?"
11 Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.
12* But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them."
13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarrelled with the LORD, and by which he showed his holiness.


SECOND READING Philippians. 3:7-end (NRSV)

7* Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
8* More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
9* and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
10* I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
11* if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12* Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
13* Belovèd, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
14* I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
15* Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you.
16* Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.
17* Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.
18* For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.
19* Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.
20* But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
21* He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

Reuben's Theme: "STOP WHINGING!"

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Anyone who has ever watched the television programme, "The Simpsons" will recognise the question, so often heard from the lips of children on a car journey.
"Are we there yet?" and the parent's answer "No!"
Mind you, when Bart and Lisa Simpson ask the question, it's more like a disco scratch-mix, because they don't stop...

"Are we there yet?"... ..."No"
"Are we there yet?"... ..."No"
"Are we there yet?"... ..."No"
"Are we there yet?"... ..."No"
"Are we there yet?"... ..."No"

Yes... ...they are whinging!

The shrine administrator at Walsingham, Fr. Philip North, has a catch phrase which we hear regularly at every 'Youth Pilgrimage' every August.
As he comes out, before a service, to make any special announcements, there is always something that has had to be changed, moved, or altered (in some way).

As he starts to explain that unfortunately some change-or-other has had to be made, or some item has been cancelled, or volunteers are required for some reason-or-other, groans can be heard from the massive congregation of teenagers.

Immediately he pauses. Looks over the entire assembly and cries out...

..."Stop Whinging!" ...and a huge cheer rings out from the enormous congregation.

Let's face it, we're all very good at whinging...

Not just Christians either.

Every religion, these days, has more than it's fair share of whingers.

Recently, Muslims have re-discovered the 'joys' of whinging - at a ludricous level.

An insult to Mohammed, who, even I feel, is greater than the cartoon comment aimed in the Muslim direction, by the media.

Whinging is something we're all guilty of, at some time in our lives...
...and that's exactly what the Israelites are doing in our first reading tonight.

"Would that we had died when our kindred died before the LORD!
Whinge, whinge, whinge...

Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here?
Whinge, whinge, whinge...

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place?
Whinge, whinge, whinge...

It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is no water to drink."
Whinge, whinge, whinge...

It seems that the Israelites were good at whinging... ...even thousands of years ago.

In our first reading this morning, we hear of Naaman complaining about his treatment from Elisha.

The instructions he was given, to be cured from his leprosy, were somewhat ordinary and not as grand or spectacular as he had expected.

Naaman was whinging!

Whinge, whinge, whinge...

In our second reading tonight, even Paul is pretending to whinge.

I like to believe that Paul does have an ironic sense of humour, and is not the boaring convert many try to protray him as.
Whatever material gains he has achieved, he counts them as a loss "...because of Christ"
In fact, he regards everything as a loss, because the knowledge (and understanding) of Christ is greater (and more important) that anything else. "I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
He even blames Jesus for the loss in value of all earthly things! "For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ"

Whinge, whinge, whinge...?

Paul, however, delights in his little whinge as he knows all this brings him closer to God.

Paul has cleverly shown his joy in following Jesus, while pretending to complain.

He desperately wants to become more like Christ, and even to become like Him in death.

Later, in his letter, he tells us that all Christians must grasp and hold firm to the level of faith and understanding that they have reached so far.

As he says "Only let us hold fast to what we have attained."

So, what have we attained?

We must constantly ask ourselves that.

Actually being the select group who are here this evening counts for a lot!

[Note: There are 29 people at this service.]

But, as we heard this morning, Naaman's servants helped Naaman see how stupid he was being, 'Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, "Wash, and be clean"?'
And upon carrying out Elisha's instructions, he is not only cured, but his skin becomes as that of a young boy.

You see, no matter how much we whinge, God, the TRUE GOD, will help us...

...eventually...

...as soon as we realise how much we've been whinging...

...as soon as we reach out to God!

You see, we can't expect God to constantly be reachimg out to us...
...we must reach out to God.

In modern, consumer friendly, computer language, I'm told this is referred to as being pro-active.

(I think we can thank the Amerikans for that vandalism of our English language).

In our Gospel reading this morning we heard of the joy of the Leaper, cured by Jesus.

The main message of this morning's Gospel, is the fact that Jesus reaches out to absoultely everyone.

Reaches out and touches, those that other's will not touch!

But there is also an underlying theme.

We specialise in underlying themes at evensong.

You see...

...up to this point...

...Jesus had been actively going out to meet everyone.

The leaper was one of those few who had actively seeked out Jesus.

Once cured by the kindness, and the touch, of Jesus, he was so delighted, that he disregarded that which Jesus had commanded him do do...
'See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.'

The cured leaper, bless him, was so overcome with joy that he went around telling everyone... ...and spreading the good news!

From this point on - Jesus cannot openly go into towns.
As Mark's Gospel tells us, Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to Him from every quarter.

The tables are turned - and people now actively seek out Jesus.

As Paul tells us all, in the part of the letter to te Corinthians we heard this morning, all Christians must do their very best to seek and follow Christ.

Comparing their efforts...
...our efforts...
...to those of an athlete...
...who runs a race in order to win it, by doing their very best.
Not running aimlessly, or boxing as if just beating the air...
...but doing the utmost, even through severe pain, to do their very best.
The way we all should do our best to follow Christ.
Suffering the bad...
...and savouring the good...
...to be a Christian.

No matter how bad things get...

No matter how much we suffer, for our beliefs..

...like the Israelites, Naaman, Paul and all the others who have gone before...

...we must firmly place our trust and our faith in God!

As Paul tells us, we have the help of God in Jesus Christ.

We must, in Fr. Philip's words, STOP WHINGING

We must, as Saint Paul often tells us...

...forsake all earthly things - so important to others...

...and follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

Our supreme example.

Our Lord and Saviour.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.