Key notices: Churches Together Prayer Breakfast, Thanet Prayer Diary
Coming Up: Confirmation Service, Men’s Group Games Night, Easter Cracked, Welcome Service for new Archbishop of Canterbury, Romp through the Old Testament
Interesting Blogs: Ukraine an unwanted anniversary, Ukraine and the test of International Law
Weekly Calendar
Online Forms: Event application, Submit a notice, maintenance report, access Safeguarding training
Scroll on…
Opening Reflection
Last week, we looked at the two humanities on offer. The one rooted in Adam’s disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden and the other rooted in Christ’s obedience to God in the Garden of Gethsemane as he expressed his willingness to die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. We now have the option of continuing to live simply in the old way as a descendant of Adam and his disobedience, or by faith in Christ as those reconciled to God and assured of his forgiveness.
As Christians, we inhabit both of these humanities. In Galatians Paul talks about our ‘flesh’ or ‘sinful nature’ as the drives and attitudes that we inherit from Adam’s disobedience. It can lead us into all kinds of different sins. As Christians, however, we have received the Holy Spirit, which helps us to live in obedience to God. In particular, the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is to develop characteristics or virtues which are deeply attractive: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Over the coming few months, we will be looking in more depth at each of these virtues and how we can grow in them with the help of God. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people’s experience of the church was of a community whose members are marked by such qualities? Indeed, one of the things that drew me to become a Christian as a child was observing people in the church exhibiting such beautiful qualities.
These virtues do not develop automatically. Paul talks of a conflict in our lives between the flesh and the Spirit within us. If we are to truly live out the new humanity of Christ, then we need to learn to resist the flesh and its urges and walk in step with the Spirit.
Paul Worledge
Key Notices:
Churches Together Prayer Breakfast
St. Luke’s and St. George’s will be hosting the Churches Together Prayer Breakfast at St. Luke’s Hall on Saturday 7th March, 9am to 10am. Everyone is welcome to attend. If you can offer to help with the catering, then please see Paul this Sunday.
Book Corner
Our book corner has now moved to the warmer less draughty side of the church. Do go and have a look at the colourful selection of new books in the front-facing display case chosen by Lucy. Many of these books are about the lives of missionaries. The older bookcase contains Bibles, Handbooks, and books explaining different books or parts of the Bible. There is plenty of choice for everyone. You are welcome to borrow the books, but when you return them, it would be great if you could write a brief review to encourage others to read them. Some cards for your comments will be available soon. We welcome donations of other Christian books which are still in good condition and do not have handwritten notes in them.
Thanet Prayer Diary
Copies of the March and April prayers are available at the back of church or download here.
Coming Up:
Confirmation Service
Sat. 28th Feb., 5pm, St. Luke’s Church
Please come and support candidates from St. Luke’s, St. George’s and other local churches being confirmed and baptised at the end of February. There will be around nine candidates from St. Luke’s and four from St. George’s. Bishop Rose will be taking the service.
Men’s Group Games Night
The next event is a Games night at St Lukes, Church Hall on Thursday 12th March. Please let Bruce know if you are going.
Easter Cracked
St. Luke’s will be hosting 80 Year 6 pupils from St. Lawrence College and Newlands School on the morning of Tuesday 24th March for this interactive workshop run by ACTS.If you can volunteer to help host and run the workshop (setting up from 9am and tidying up until about mid-day), then please let Paul know.
Welcome Service for new Archbishop of Canterbury
The service, led by the Bishop of Dover, will bring together individuals and church groups from across our county highlighting the rich and varied communities which we serve. This will be the main opportunity for the whole Diocese to formally welcome and show our support for our new Diocesan Bishop. Saturday 28th March, 5:30-6:30pm. Canterbury Cathedral. Click here to book a free ticket.
Romp through the Old Testament
An interactive day of exploration, new insights and fun with Rev. Dr. Sue Woan. Free! (donations welcome) Bring your own lunch – drinks provided. Saturday 18th April, 9.30am – 3.00pm. Newington Free Church, St. John’s Avenue, Ramsgate. To book a place contact Robin Plant:
Interesting Blogs to Share:
Ukraine, an unwanted anniversary
This week marked the fourth anniversary since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this article read a report about the work of CMS partners in the country. It includes some prayer requests. Read more…
Ukraine and the test of International Law
In this article, Mark Meynell, explores the implication of the four years of war in Ukraine for International Law. Read more…
Will you dare to share the Christian life with others? Life groups are a great way to meet together regularly with a small group of other Christians, for mutual support, to share in reading God’s word and to pray for one another.
Please see Paul if you are interested in joining one. There are groups at the following times:
Monday evenings
Tuesday afternoons
Wednesday mornings
Wednesday evenings
Online Forms:
Under the ‘Contact’ tab on the website, there are now three forms that you can use to help us in managing the church:
Events Application Form. Use this if you are organising a church event that needs a church room booked, advertising or ticketing.
Submit a Notice. Use this if you want to ask us to include a prayer request or other notice in the church notice sheet or email.
If you volunteer in anyway at church the national authorities are strongly encouraging you to take at least the Basic Module in safeguarding training once every three years.
If you have not completed the training in the last three years, then the module can be completed online and takes about ninety minutes. You can access the training by following this link. You will need to first register, to access the training. Once the training is completed, you will be sent a certificate. Please forward that certificate to James (office@churchramsgate.org), so that we can keep records of who has done the training.
Finally, let’s keep developing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives,
Kent’s “Speak Their Name” Memorial Quilt: 66 squares. 66 lives. A promise to remember, and a call to change.
The quilt will be visiting St George’s from 18th March to 1st April, with a Connection Event on Saturday 21st March, when there will be a chance to learn more about the quilt and the stories behind it, and to take part in a Q&A session from 2pm to 4pm.
Within Kent and Medway almost 200 deaths by suicide are reported a year and we know this is likely to be under reported by Coroners verdicts, but there are moments when grief refuses to stay quiet. The Kent Speak Their Name Suicide Memorial Quilt is one of them: a powerful, hand-crafted memorial made up of 66 individual squares, each created by families and friends bereaved by suicide , each square a life, a story, a face, a name that will not be erased.
The quilt was led in Kent by Tristan and Emma Kluibenschadl, founders of STAK.life (Stefan’s Acts of Kindness), after losing their beloved son Stefan, who died by suicide at just 15. Stefan, they say, had reported relentless bullying at his Saturday job for being autistic, and they describe a wider failure of understanding and appropriate support around him — in education, mental health, and the systems meant to protect children who are struggling.
This is not “just” a quilt. It is a public refusal to let people become statistics.
A quilt stitched from love, and from the shards of the unthinkable
The Kent quilt grew from a moment in September 2024, when Tristan and Emma attended the unveiling of another Speak Their Name memorial quilt in Portsmouth. Seeing Stefan’s name and photograph among the squares was “heart-wrenching, yet profoundly moving,” and it sparked a decision: Kent needed its own space to hold grief, memory, and community — out loud, together.
In January 2025, with community donations, volunteers, and workshop packs sent across the county, the Kent project began. Twelve workshops were held across Kent, offering bereaved families a safe place to create, talk, cry, laugh, and be understood by people who didn’t need grief explained to them.
Each square is different , stitched, painted, embroidered, layered with photos, symbols, favourite colours, in-jokes, and messages that still sound like the person who is gone. Together, the squares form a tapestry that says plainly: they mattered, they still matter, and we will keep speaking their names.
“For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19)
Adam famously disobeyed God’s one rule not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are all descendants of Adam, and like our ultimate father we all continue to disobey God. The Bible calls that sin.
Yet, God sent Jesus as a second Adam, a new humanity. In contrast to Adam, Jesus obeyed. Now, we have a choice of which humanity we want to belong to. The disobedient one founded by Adam or the obedient one launched by Christ, through whom we can be made righteous in God’s sight.
Artificial Intelligence is here. In many ways it seems increasingly human like. It can relate to us almost like another human, write essays, songs, music, create art and even movies. It seems increasingly human like. Does its coming mean that this is going to be one of the most pivotal or epochal moments for humanity? Will it change or even replace humanity?
Artificial Intelligence is made to mimic humans. It is trained on masses of human output, so that it can produce similar output itself. As such AI offers a kind of copy or image of humanity.
But what happens, if you take an image of the image. If you take a photo of a photo, then the second photo is not as close a representation as the first. Keep doing it and the image becomes degraded.
Some scientists did a similar thing with AI. Rather than using human output, they trained an AI on AI output. If AI is a copy of humanity, then this AI was a copy of the copy. Then they trained another AI on the output of the copy of the copy. The more they did this, the more the AI produced total gobbledygook. The further the copy goes from the original the more degraded it becomes. AI needs humanity, to be able to imitate humanity. It can’t ultimately replace humanity.
Image of God
Right at the beginning of the Bible, it says that humans were made in the image of God. In some way, we mirror what God is like, without being fully God ourselves.
If that is what it is to be human, then we remain more fully human the more connected with God we are. The more distant from God we become, the more degraded becomes the image of God in us and the less human we become.
Two Epochal Moments for Humanity
What has all this to do with Romans 5? In Romans, Paul is presenting the good news about Jesus Christ as truly good news for the whole of humanity. And in this section of Romans he is comparing two different versions of this humanity. Each is rooted in an epochal moment in history, a moment where humanity was changed for ever on a more fundamental level than Artificial Intelligence will ever do, because these two events effected our connection with God and so our ability to truly live in the image of God.
So, what were these two crucial moments?
Adam’s Trespass or Disobedience: Humanity Degraded
The first, was Adam’s choice to disobey God. In Genesis, Adam is presented as the first man, with Eve as the first woman alongside him. They were the ones created in God’s image. The Bible sees all of us as ultimately descended from Adam and so in some way we inherit Adam’s likeness in ourselves. We too are in God’s image, like them. But we also inherit the big choice that they made.
You may find it hard to accept that we are all descended from one man. But, in 2004, some mathematicians put together a mathematical model to answer the question as to who was the most recent common ancestor of all people alive today. The results suggested that this person lived no earlier than 1400BC and possibly as recently as AD55. Now, our most recent common ancestor, is not our only common ancestor, there would have been lots of people living 1,000s of years ago, that are ancestors of everyone living today. It’s not a big step to believe that one of these was the Adam, that the Bible talks about.
So, what was the big choice that Adam made? In Genesis we are told, that Adam was put in the Garden of Eden and given access to the fruit of all the trees including the tree of life. There was just one rule. He was not allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This probably represents the choice to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, rather than to defer to what God says. Adam, having this one rule, however, at the prompting of the devil decided to disobey the commandment and eat the fruit.
The result was to distance himself from the God, that he was made to be in the image of. It lead to the ultimate degradation of humanity, from which the rest of the sins of the world flow.
As Adam’s descendants we too share in the same attitude of disobedience to God, thinking we can decide for ourselves what is right and wrong rather than defer to God. So, we true degrade the image of God in us, that we were created to be. We lose the ultimate meaning of our humanity. We become sinners and as a result of our sin, we die spiritually and physically. In our sin we come under God’s judgement, his condemnation.
This is what Paul is saying again and again in Romans 5. Just look at the start of verse 19:
“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners…” (Romans 5:19)
For Paul, the moment Adam chose to disobey God, was the moment humanity lost its calling to be made in the image of God, it was plunged into a world full of sin, condemnation and death. Separated from their maker, humanity was deeply degraded.
Christ’s Gift and Obedience: Humanity Renewed
In contrast to Adam’s disobedience, Paul presents Christ’s obedience. What is he referring to? Jesus’ death on the cross. The cross was many things, even in the verses earlier in chapter 5, Paul has talked about how through the cross, we are justified and reconciled with God, more than that the cross was the greatest demonstration of God’s love to us.
But, the cross was also an act of obedience. Jesus, was in a way a new Adam, a reset for humanity. Jesus as the eternal Son of God came in the flesh, to share in our humanity, but also to offer a reset to our humanity, to be the human who truly was in the image of God.
This challenge reached its climax in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus who knew that the cross was coming the very next day, knelt down to pray, longing that he might somehow avoid the pain and suffering it would entail. But in the end he prayed to God, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Whereas Adam chose to reject God’s will in disobedience, Jesus despite the enormous personal cost chose to embrace God’s will in obedience.
But, Paul, says in so doing, he opened up a new possibility for humanity. He offered a way back to God, a chance to embrace our original calling to live in the image of God. A chance to be justified by God rather than condemned. A return to life, true life and eternal life.
Jesus’ death, then was the other epochal moment in human history. It created a new humanity, free from the results of Adam’s original choice.
As it says in verse 19:
“For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
Our Choice:
So, we now have a choice. Do we want the degraded humanity of Adam or the renewed humanity of Christ?
In Romans 5, Paul lays out the results of being part of these two humanities:
Adam’s by Descent: Condemnation and Death
As people descended from death, we all inherit the degraded humanity of Adam. We are all sinners. And this has consequences: condemnation and death.
As it says in verse 12:
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned–” (Romans 5:12)
And in verse 18:
“Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men,” (Romans 5:18a)
The condemnation spoken of here is the just judgement of God on our sin.
In the news this week, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Suspicion is not the same as condemnation, but the police will try and see if there is a case for him to answer and if there is, then he will be taken to court where the case will be put, and if he is found guilty he will be condemned and there will be a punishment.
Andrew, had a position of great privilege and responsibility. He was meant to use it to represent the UK and advance its prospects, not for his own benefit and to satisfy his own lusts. However, he is under suspicion of doing just that and there is rightly an outcry against him and a demand that if guilty he face judgement and is stripped of his place in the line of succession and barred from a home in the royal grounds in Windsor.
As human beings, we are made in the image of God. As such we are given an office to represent God, but we have ignored God, and used our position simply to satisfy our own desires and lusts. This is our sin, and on the day of trial, God will condemn us and judge us for our behaviour. We will be cut off from him totally and barred from a place in his eternal home. This is the ultimate death.
We can choose to continue living in this way without God. But the good news is that in Christ, God has offered us a way back to true humanity.
Christ’s by Faith: Justification and Life
At the beginning of chapter 5, Paul says,
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Romans 5:1)
We are born as descendants of Adam, but if we put our faith in Jesus, we can become part of his renewed humanity. Adam’s disobedience was profound and had profound consequences, but the gift of Jesus’ obedience is more powerful than that of Adam’s disobedience:
“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” (Romans 5:15)
So, what do we gain as part of Christ’s new humanity:
“Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.” (Romans 5:18)
We receive justification. That is when it comes to God sitting in judgement on us, because we have chosen to belong to Christ, God sees not our sin, but Jesus’ sacrifice on behalf of our sin. And so we are justified, we are no longer under condemnation for our sin.
As a result we are reconciled with God, and we can enjoy the true life that he created us to have. A life that means we are welcomed into his eternal home, but more than that a life that means we are part of his family now, and can approach him as our Father. This is what it means to have peace with God.
As such we can come close to God and be made increasingly into the image of God, that we were originally created to be. We can live our true calling, we can discover our true humanity.
Conclusion:
Paul’s writings in Romans may feel a long way from talk about AI and our modern world. But, the rise of AI forces us to think once more about what it means to be truly human. Indeed, if we are going to make the most of AI and avoid its dangers, then we need to understand our humanity more deeply than ever.
The Bible tells us that Jesus is the only way to really regain our true humanity that was lost by Adam. Now more than ever is the time to come and put out faith in him and discover the life that only he can offer.
“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16)
Join us this Sunday as all ages join together for our focus on Jesus’ Transfiguration. Come and glimpse the glory of Jesus.
Longest period in Aberdeen without sun for over 70 years. 21 terrible days with no sun. Then on Thursday the sun shone!
What had happened to the sun? It had not gone away it had been hidden by the clouds. Its glory was obscured by the gloom of the weather.
When we took off from Morocco to fly home from our holiday it was cloudy and rainy. But the plane takes you up beyond the clouds and you discover that the sun is still shining. Its glory remains.
Why is God’s glory hidden?
Some people ask, why does God not reveal his true glory? Wouldn’t we then believe in him. Why is God so hidden?
When Jesus walked the earth, similarly, people demanded to be shown proof that he truly was God’s special person. Despite Jesus’ amazing teaching and his incredible miracles, they were still not convinced, they still wanted more evidence. After all, despite the amazing things Jesus did he still looked like an ordinary human being.
And partly to prove their point, they had Jesus crucified. If Jesus could be killed like a criminal, then surely that was proof that he could not be anyone special. To these people the true glory of God was hidden.
So, why does God hide himself from us? Why didn’t Jesus show his full glory to everyone?
Is it because God does not exist? Or was Jesus really not God’s Son?
The events described in Matthew’s gospel today, show that that is not the case. Jesus did reveal his full glory. Like the clouds clearing to reveal the sun, the earthly nature of Jesus momentarily allowed his full glory to shine through.
What the Disciples Experienced
Jesus chose three of his closest disciple, Peter, James and John, to go up to the top of a High Mountain with him. Normally if you climb a mountain, the awe-inspiring moment is the spectacular views that you see. But Jesus did not take them up the mountain for the scenery. He took them so that they could have a true taste of Jesus in his true glory.
Matthew tells the story, by emphasising that this is what was experienced by the three disciples. Most of what happens is described as something happening to them. What they saw, what they experienced, what they heard. All of it was completely outside normal human experience. All of it pointed to the true nature of Jesus.
Jesus Transfigured
The first thing they saw was Jesus transfigured before them. Matthew says his face shone like the sun and his clothes, became as white as light. He was a heavenly being, a Divine being. In other places, angels are described in similar ways. So at the end of Matthew’s gospel, the angel who comes and rolls back the stone from the tomb Jesus is buried in is described:
“His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.” (Matthew 28:3)
In the Old Testament, God himself is described in similar terms:
“He wraps himself in light as with a garment; ” (Ps.104:2a)
All this showed that Jesus was not just a human like you and me, his true nature was in this moment shining through, for Peter, James and John to see.
Moses and Elijah
The second thing they see is Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. This in itself is amazing, because both Moses and Elijah had been dead for hundreds of years. But why these two?
Both of them had in their lives gone up a mountain to meet one to one with God.
Both of them suffered opposition and hostility from the people to whom they were sent, but were vindicated by God. Jesus has just told his disciples that he is going to die and be raised again.
The appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus, shows that Jesus is at least as important as both of them. But whereas they went up a mountain to meet with God, now Jesus goes up a mountain to be met by them. Jesus takes on the role of God.
Peter, James and John have not been brought up the mountain to meet with God, like Moses and Elijah, but to see the true glory of Jesus.
Cloud
Thirdly, a cloud comes down and covers them. Matthew says it was a bright cloud. In the Old Testament, God coming down was often shown by a cloud coming. When Moses brought Israel to Mount Sinai, a cloud came down on the mountain. When Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God and to receive the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, the cloud came down and covered the mountain. This represents the very presence of God on the mountain with them.
For Peter, James and John, this was not just a vision, but an all embracing experience. It was terrifying.
Voice from the cloud
Finally, they hear God addressing them directly from the cloud. What he says to them about Jesus is utterly amazing:
“This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased, listen to him.”
When Moses met with God on the mountain, God gave him the Ten Commandments. When Elijah went up the mountain to meet with God, God gave him instructions of what to do next. When Peter, James and John were taken up the mountain they were not given a law or instructions of what to do next, but a person to listen to and follow. Just after Jesus had told them things that they found hard to hear, that the plan was for him to die, that following him would mean denying yourself, things that might make them want to give up on following Jesus, Jesus was given the highest endorsement possible.
What was good about the disciples being there?
So, why did Jesus take the disciples up the mountain for this experience? While they are in the midst of their experience, Peter says, “It is good for us to be here!”
But why was it good for them to be there?
To be Confident about Jesus
When Peter said it was good for them to be there, he went on to suggest it was because they could do things for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. He could build a shelter for each of them.
But Jesus did not bring them there to serve Him, but to discover his true nature. They were meant to be spectators in the moment not contributors to the moment. There would be plenty of time for them to serve Jesus, but this was a moment for them to experience him.
And it was transforming. It gave these three the confidence they needed to lead the church after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Sadly, James was executed not long after Jesus’ resurrection, but Peter and John went on to write parts of the Bible. Peter wrote:
“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” (2 Peter 1:16-18)
And John wrote at the start of his gospel,
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
If we come at our Christian lives eager simply to serve, rather than to truly seek God and know his glory, then we will not be transformed. We will soon give up.
Don’t get so caught up in a desire to serve, that you miss out on experiencing the true glory of Jesus.
To Listen to Jesus
In the preceding section, Peter in particular had struggled to accept, Jesus saying that he was going to be rejected and die. At times, we too will find Jesus teaching, or the teaching of the Bible hard to accept. But when we come to understand that Jesus is God’s beloved Son, with whom he is well pleased, then we know that the most important thing in life is to listen to him.
At the end of Matthew’s gospel, the risen and ascended Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations and to teach them to obey everything he has commanded them. Obey Jesus only makes sense when we know who he is.
To be Comforted by Jesus
The Transfiguration is told in Matthew, Mark and Luke’s gospel. Each telling contains all the main elements, but there are differences. The thing that Matthew tells us that the other gospels don’t is how the disciples responded initially – they were terrified!
Wouldn’t you be? Being on a mountain when the clouds come down, is scary in itself. If the cloud is also bright in a strange way, that would be more scary. But if God spoke to you straight out of the mountain, that would be terrifying. That’s what happened to Peter, James and John.
But as soon as it is over, Jesus comes to them and touches them and says, “Get up, do not be afraid.”
Yes, they had learnt about Jesus’ true nature and his glory, that was an amazing experience, but they needed to know Jesus’ humanity and that they could relate to him as before. They were learning, that God is comforting and caring, despite being mighty and awesome. Jesus holds both those things together.
Why was Jesus’ glory hidden?
Peter, James and John experienced the true glory of Jesus. But why was it hidden to others. Why didn’t Jesus bring the other twelve? Why didn’t he reveal his glory even more widely, so that more believed? Why does he tell Peter, James and John not to talk about this until after he has died and risen from the dead?
The one thing we can say, is that this is not a sign of God’s weakness, but part of his plan. God is not incapable of revealing his glory. He chooses to remain hidden.
But why?
Firstly, the terror of Peter, James and John, also reminds us of the terror of the Israelites when God appeared to them at Mount Sinai. They said to Moses,
“”When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” (Exodus 20:18-19)
One reason God remains hidden is that we simply cannot cope with seeing his full glory. It is too terrifying and scary. We need to hear from God, through those who are at our level. So, God sent messengers through the prophets. He sent his Son not as a glorious angel, but as a normal human being. He had the message about Jesus spread not with words written in the sky, but through the people of the church and the words written by inspired humans in the Bible. God’s glory remains hidden so that we can cope with his message.
Secondly, though, God’s hiddenness is a judgement for a world that seeks to live without him. Jesus revealed himself, most fully to those who sought to follow him most closely. Those who rejected him or demanded that he show them signs, did not see his glory, or his more amazing miracles or even his resurrection. As Blaise Pascal said,
“He hides himself from those who test him,
and he reveals himself to those who seek him.”
If you approach God, with an attitude of testing him, expecting him to meet the tests you set for his existence, or the standards you set for morality, then he will remain hidden to you.
If you want to experience God’s glory, then you need to seek him. You need to accept that God knows better than you. That you need his help, he doesn’t need your approval. That your only hope is to trust his message of forgiveness through the cross and that the only way to live is by following his ways. The more you seek God, then the more God will give you moments of experiencing his glory and the more we come to know God’s glory, the more we will be transformed and equipped to change our world, as the first disciples did.
God to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3)
Like Israel in the wilderness we may find life tough at times, perhaps because we keep failing to live in God’s ways. Yet, we can know that God’s ultimate aim will always be to bless us and bring us into his ultimate promise of life, just as he brought Israel into the Promised Land.
This Sunday we finish our series on Israel travelling in the wilderness.
21 Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. 22 But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road.
24 Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. 25 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again.
26 Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. 28 Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
29 Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”
30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”
“No,” he said.
31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.
32 The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me.[a] 33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”
34 Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back.”
35 The angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only what I tell you.” So Balaam went with Balak’s officials.
36 When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the Moabite town on the Arnon border, at the edge of his territory. 37 Balak said to Balaam, “Did I not send you an urgent summons? Why didn’t you come to me? Am I really not able to reward you?”
38 “Well, I have come to you now,” Balaam replied. “But I can’t say whatever I please. I must speak only what God puts in my mouth.”
39 Then Balaam went with Balak to Kiriath Huzoth. 40 Balak sacrificed cattle and sheep, and gave some to Balaam and the officials who were with him. 41 The next morning Balak took Balaam up to Bamoth Baal, and from there he could see the outskirts of the Israelite camp.
“For just as through the disobedience of the one man,the many were made sinners,so also through the obedience of the one manthe many will be made righteous.”
Key notices: Confirmation Cake, Charities, St. Luke’s 150th
Coming Up: Thanet Churches Together Prayer Gathering, Confirmation Service, ACTS Preparation for Easter Cracked, Men’s Group Games Night
Interesting Blogs: Childen’s emotions and behaviour, staying human in the age of AI
Prayer Requests
Weekly Calendar
Online Forms: Event application, Submit a notice, maintenance report, access Safeguarding training
Scroll on…
Opening Reflection
This week we began Lent. For many Lent is reduced to the time when you give something up, whether it be chocolate, alcohol, coffee or something else, but traditionally it is meant to be much more than that.
The aim of Lent is to reflect on our lifestyles and ask ourselves whether we are truly living the way God called us to live. It is a time to focus afresh on God, to acknowledge our sin, give thanks for his grace and mercy and seek to live in obedience. Giving something up or taking on new spiritual habits may help with that, but they are not the ultimate aim of Lent.
Lent is inspied by the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness. During that time, Jesus was preparing for his ministry and was tempted by the devil. The big question for Jesus was whether he would take the hard route and obey God or the easy route and give in to temptation. It was a preparation for a ministry of obedience, which climaxed in his ultimate act of obedience: dying on the cross to bring us forgiveness of sins.
All this is in contrast with Adam, who famously disobeyed God’s one rule not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are all descendants of Adam, and like our ultimate father we all continue to disobey God. The Bible calls that sin.
Yet, God sent Jesus as a second Adam, a new humanity. In contrast to Adam, Jesus obeyed. Now, we have a choice of which humanity we want to belong to. The disobedient one founded by Adam or the obedient one launched by Christ, through whom we can be made righteous in God’s sight.
Paul Worledge
Key Notices:
Confirmation Cake
There will be four candidates from St. George’s being confirmed at St. Luke’s on Saturday 28th at 5pm. For after the service refreshments we want to provide hot drinks and cake. If you can make a cake for the service, then please sign the list at the back of church.
Charities
At our PCC, we agreed to support the three following charities:
Active Christianity in Thanet Schools, a local charity that seeks to bring the Christian message to children where they are.
Christians Against Poverty, a national charity that helps people break free from debt.
Christian Aid, a charity that seeks to alleviate poverty around the world.
If you are interested in being a representative for any of these, then please see Paul.
Coming Up:
Thanet Churches Together Prayer Gathering
Sunday 22nd February, 6:30pm, St. James’ Church, Westgate, CT9 5JU
Confirmation Service
Sat. 28th Feb., 5pm, St. Luke’s Church
Please come and support candidates from St. Luke’s, St. George’s and other local churches being confirmed and baptised at the end of February. There will be around nine candidates from St. Luke’s and four from St. George’s. Bishop Rose will be taking the service.
ACTS preparation for Easter Cracked
There is going to be a training and resource making session for all the Easter Cracked events across Thanet on Wednesday 25th February, 12pm at St. Peter’s Baptist Church, run by Active Christianity in Thanet Schools.
Men’s Group Games Night
The next event is a Games night at St Lukes, 12th March.
Interesting Blogs to Share:
Children’s Emotions and Behaviours
A short video (90seconds) helping parents to consider how to work with their child to understand how they are feeling and why. Find out more…
Staying Human in the age of AI
With the growth in AI and its use, questions are raised about what it means to be human and how not to lose our humainty in the face of being replaced by AI. Read more…
Will you dare to share the Christian life with others? Life groups are a great way to meet together regularly with a small group of other Christians, for mutual support, to share in reading God’s word and to pray for one another.
Please see Paul if you are interested in joining one. There are groups at the following times:
Monday evenings
Tuesday afternoons
Wednesday mornings
Wednesday evenings
Online Forms:
Under the ‘Contact’ tab on the website, there are now three forms that you can use to help us in managing the church:
Events Application Form. Use this if you are organising a church event that needs a church room booked, advertising or ticketing.
Submit a Notice. Use this if you want to ask us to include a prayer request or other notice in the church notice sheet or email.
If you volunteer in anyway at church the national authorities are strongly encouraging you to take at least the Basic Module in safeguarding training once every three years.
If you have not completed the training in the last three years, then the module can be completed online and takes about ninety minutes. You can access the training by following this link. You will need to first register, to access the training. Once the training is completed, you will be sent a certificate. Please forward that certificate to James (office@churchramsgate.org), so that we can keep records of who has done the training.
Finally, let’s align ourselves with the new humanity of Jesus.
“We did not follow cleverly invented storieswhen we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty.”
Interesting Blogs: Ideas for Lent: Draw near to God, Go Green for Lent,
Weekly Calendar
Online Forms: Event application, Submit a notice, maintenance report, access Safeguarding training
Scroll on…
Opening Reflection
Could the Winter Olympics be held in Africa? The obvious response is, of course not, it is too hot. Yet, in Morrocco, in the High Atlas mountains, there is plenty of snow in the winter. So much so, that there are ski resorts there.
On our holiday in Morocco, we could see these mountains, and as all mountains there was something majestic and awesome about them. Mountains, themselves provoke feelings of awe, but in the Bible, true moments of awe often happened at the top of mountains. Most famously, in the Old Testament, Moses went up on to the top of Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive the Ten Commandments, the law for God’s people to live by. Elijah also went to meet with God on the same mountain.
In the New Testament, Jesus takes his three closest disciples up a mountain. Unlike Moses and Elijah, Jesus does not go up the mountain to meet with God, but to reveal his Divinity. At the top, the three disciples become eyewitnesses who see Jesus in his true awe-inspiring glory as he is transfigured before them. Moses and Elijah also appear not now meeting with God, but meeting with Jesus.
This was an unforgettable moment. It helped to underline to the three disciples who Jesus truly was, but also that they should take his teaching seriously. Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law, which the people of God needed to listen to, but the disciples on the mountain hear a voice telling them, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” In the Old Testament, God gave the Law through Moses, now Jesus is shown to be the true law-giver. We need to learn to listen to him and follow his teachings, because of who he is, God come to be with us.
Paul Worledge
Key Notices:
Charities
At our PCC on Thursday, we agreed to support the three following charities:
Active Christianity in Thanet Schools, a local charity that seeks to bring the Christian message to children where they are.
Christians Against Poverty, a national charity that helps people break free from debt.
Christian Aid, a charity that seeks to alleviate poverty around the world.
St. Luke’s 150th
In preparation for St. Luke’s 150th later this year, they have produced a newsletter about the upcoming celebrations, and also the future plans for our two churches. Copies are available at the back of church.
Coming Up:
Ash Wednesday Service
Wednesday 18th February, 11am at St. George’s Church. Join us for this simple and reflective service at the start of the season of Lent.
Thanet Churches Together Prayer Gathering
Sunday 22nd February, 6:30pm, St. James’ Church, Westgate, CT9 5JU
Confirmation Service
Sat. 28th Feb., 5pm, St. Luke’s Church
Please come and support candidates from St. Luke’s, St. George’s and other local churches being confirmed and baptised at the end of February. Bishop Rose will be taking the service.
Easter Cracked
St. Luke’s will be hosting 80 Year 6 pupils from St. Lawrence College and Newlands School on the morning of Tuesday 24th March. If you can volunteer to help host and run the workshop (setting up from 9am and tidying up until about mid-day), then please let Paul know.
There is also going to be a training and resource making session for all the Easter Cracked events across Thanet on Wednesday 25th February, 12pm at St. Peter’s Baptist Church, run by Active Christianity in Thanet Schools.
Interesting Blogs to Share:
This week we offer a couple of potential resources for Lent.
Draw Near to God:
During Lent, reflections are centred around a summary of the Christian Way from Common Worship, which identifies six activities essential to our calling as disciples.
Each week a different contributor explores a different aspect of Christian discipleship – worshipping together, praying, exploring the Bible, sharing communion, offering service and sharing the good news with others.
A parallel 40-day challenge for families and children will also be available – exploring the life-giving habit of generosity in partnership with 40acts.
You can order a booklet or access the material through the EveryDay Faith app.
If you volunteer in anyway at church the national authorities are strongly encouraging you to take at least the Basic Module in safeguarding training once every three years.
If you have not completed the training in the last three years, then the module can be completed online and takes about ninety minutes. You can access the training by following this link. You will need to first register, to access the training. Once the training is completed, you will be sent a certificate. Please forward that certificate to James (office@churchramsgate.org), so that we can keep records of who has done the training.
Finally, let’s set our eyes upon Jesus and his true glory…
Coming Up: Marjorie Woodward’s funeral, Prayer Breakfast, Men’s Group Bowling, Ash Wednesday Service, Thanet Churches Together Prayer Gathering, Confirmation Service
Interesting Blogs: AI and the future
Weekly Calendar
Online Forms: Event application, Submit a notice, maintenance report, access Safeguarding training
Scroll on…
Opening Reflection
Over the last few weeks we have been going through the book of Numbers. The book starts with a lot of hope. Israel have been rescued from slavery in Egypt, have entered into a special covenant relationship with God at Mount Sinai, and set up the Tabernacle at the centre of their camp, a sign of God’s ongoing presence with them. So, they set out for the Promised Land.
Things don’t go to plan. The people lack faith in God and refuse to believe his promises. The result is that God condemns that whole generation to die in the wilderness over the following 40 years. What follows are a number of stories, where again and again God acts in judgement on the Israelites, because of their rebellion against him. They look like a nation under his curse, not his blessing.
But this is not the end of the story. God’s ultimate aim is always to bless. Yes, Israel have to learn the hard way to trust and obey God, but he will eventually bring the next generation into the land flowing with milk and honey.
Towards the end of the book, there is a long story about Balaam, a mysterious figure who has the reputation as someone who can pronounce curses on others. Israel enemies hire him to curse Israel. But God has other ideas and (with the help of a talking donkey) makes Balaam bless Israel.
Despite Israel’s constant failures and God’s regular judgement, the story emphasises that God is committed to blessing Abraham’s descendants and through him the whole world. Like Israel in the wilderness we may find life tough at times, perhaps because we keep failing to live in God’s ways. Yet, we can know that God’s ultimate aim will always be to bless us and bring us into his ultimate promise of life, just as he brought Israel into the Promised Land.
Paul Worledge
Key Notices:
Parish Safeguarding Officer Role
Safeguarding in church is the responsibility of everyone. However, we need someone to champion and promote safeguarding in the church and to be a point of contact for any concerns raised. There is a lot of Diocesan training and support for this role. If you think you might be the person to take it on then please let Paul know and he can share more about what is involved.
Life Groups
Will you dare to share the Christian life with others? Life groups are a great way to meet together regularly with a small group of other Christians, for mutual support, to share in reading God’s word and to pray for one another.
Please see Paul if you are interested in joining one. There are groups at the following times:
Monday evenings
Tuesday afternoons
Wednesday mornings
Wednesday evenings
Coming Up:
Churches Together in Ramsgate Prayer Breakfast -This Saturday
Sat. 7th Feb, 9am, Centenary Hall, Hardres Street
Marjorie Woodward’s Funeral Service – This Tuesday
Tue. 10th Feb, 1pm, St. George’s Church, 2pm Thanet Crematorium
For those who knew Marjorie Woodward, please join us for her funeral service.
Men’s Group Event – Bowling
Thursday 12th February, 6:15pm, 10-Pin bowling at Bugsy’s in Margate. Lifts available from St. Luke’s at 5:45pm. Trophy for the highest scorer and food available at the venue. Cost £10, please let Bruce Stokes know as soon as possible if you would like to attend (07708, bruce.stokes@btinternet.com )
Ash Wednesday Service
Wednesday 18th February, 11am at St. George’s Church. Join us for this simple and reflective service at the start of the season of Lent.
Thanet Churches Together Prayer Gathering
Sunday 22nd February, 6:30pm, St. James’ Church, Westgate, CT9 5JU
Confirmation Service
Sat. 28th Feb., 5pm, St. Luke’s Church
Please come and support candidates from St. Luke’s, St. George’s and other local churches being confirmed and baptised at the end of February. Bishop Rose will be taking the service.
Interesting Blogs to Share:
AI and the Future
Watch this fascinating discussion between John Lennox and Glen Scrivener on the issues that AI raises. Watch the video (45 minutes)...
Weekly Calendar
Sunday 8th February – The Second Sunday before Lent
If you volunteer in anyway at church the national authorities are strongly encouraging you to take at least the Basic Module in safeguarding training once every three years.
If you have not completed the training in the last three years, then the module can be completed online and takes about ninety minutes. You can access the training by following this link. You will need to first register, to access the training. Once the training is completed, you will be sent a certificate. Please forward that certificate to James (office@churchramsgate.org), so that we can keep records of who has done the training.
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)
This Sunday we continue our series on Israel travelling in the wilderness.
Our Bible reading this morning, from chapter 21 of the Old Testament book of Numbers, naturally falls into three sections, each section being two verses long. So, of course, it makes sense for this sermon to be divided into four parts!?! – or in any event I will do my best to say, when it comes to it, why it should have four parts! And those four parts can be summed up in the phrases ‘from bad to worse’ and ‘from great to greater’. We’ll start out with the bad, and see how far we get.
If you’ve been here of a Sunday morning at any time in the recent past, when there have been a series of sermons on the book of Numbers, you’ll be familiar with the situation the Israelites found themselves in, being led by Moses through the wilderness . After the first sermon a month ago, which was called ‘Setting out with God’, the last three sermon titles have been ‘grumbling about provision’, ‘grumbling about plans’, and ‘grumbling about leadership’. The working title I was originally given for today is ‘grumbling about everything’, and that is essentially what we read about in Numbers chapter 21, verses 4 and 5:
They travelled along the route to the Red Sea, but the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!’
So that ‘grumbling about everything’ title is perfectly good as a description of what took place there, as long as we recognise two things: first, that to say that the Israelites were ‘grumbling’ is a polite way of expressing the frantic desperation they must have felt, and second, that if we were in their shoes, we would most likely have said and done exactly what they said and did.
Last year, Carolina Wilga, a German backpacker on a solo trip around Australia became lost in the outback. The four wheel drive she had been travelling cross country in developed a fault, which led to her losing control of the vehicle and ending up stuck in a bog, without a map, 100 miles away from the nearest township or mobile phone signal. The news reports said that Carolina stayed with her car for a day “before panicking and striking out to find help”.1 She “used the sun’s position to head west”, and “had minimal food and water with her”, but “drank water from rain and puddles to survive”. “At one point, she sought shelter in a cave.” “In her mind, she had convinced herself that she was not going to be located”, and “got to a point where she thought no one was coming”.
Indeed, she had not given herself the best chance of rescue. “Staying with your vehicle is the golden rule in the outback”, according to a survival expert quoted in the press. “Not only does it help searchers, it provides shelter and the mirrors can be used the attract attention”. Safety advice for those heading to the outback includes packing beacons and tinsel lines, which can be used to form a giant X on the ground to be seen from the air. Alternatively, you could set your vehicle on fire in the hope of being found!
In the event, Carolina Wilga was spotted at the side of the road, 12 days after going missing, by a passing motorist. She was barefoot, dehydrated, starving, ravaged by mosquitoes, had cuts and bruises, and was confused and disoriented. She was 15 miles away from her vehicle when she was found, on a road used only two or three times a week by cars.
Carolina expressed gratitude to everyone involved in the search that was mobilised to find her, and to save her life. She later resumed her journey around Australia. But if on the days prior to her rescue, she had expressed worry about food and water, or despair about her life, we would recognise this to have been the result of fear and desperation, in a situation that would be enough to drive anyone to their wits’ end. We might choose not to call it ‘grumbling’ exactly. We might choose not to be too hard on her, because we know that in her situation, we too would have struggled with despair.
This, I think, describes very well the situation faced by the Israelites in Numbers chapter 21. They were miraculously provided with food and drink in the wilderness, it is true, but they had no roof over their head, and no assurances about how long their ordeal would last. We can say that they should have trusted God and Moses, instead of complaining, but we have to admit that they were in a terrifying position, and that most likely we would have behaved no differently in similar circumstances.
In fact, I think we have to admit that we do not always respond well to the circumstances we do actually face. Instead we may nurture an unconscious expectation that everything ought to go well for us and for those we love. We didn’t get this expectation from the Bible, or from Christianity, by the way. Our Lord has told us that in this world, we will have trouble (John 16:33) but it is an expectation that runs deep. It blights our faith, it misplaces our hope, and it kills our love.
The moment the smallest thing goes wrong, or the moment the largest thing goes wrong, we look for someone to blame, someone to fix everything, or at least someone to listen to us as we complain about it. When we do this, we are imitating the Israelites of Number chapter 21, and like them we face a bad situation.
And then things go from bad to worse:
The LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes things seem to have to get worse before they get better? This is as true in the Bible, as it is in human experience, and there is mystery surrounding the activity of God involved in this, both in experience and in the Bible.
One of my favourite books of the Old Testament is the book of Jonah. If you’re familiar with the story, you will know that it starts by the prophet throwing himself off a boat in the midst of a raging storm. He is in clear danger of drowning, and just as you think things couldn’t get any worse, in the final verse of the first chapter, God sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he was inside the fish three days and three nights. Things became worse before they became better as a result of what God sent.
And you may also remember that the book ends with Jonah sheltering from the blazing sun under a vine, before God sent a worm, in verse 7 of the final chapter, which chewed the vine so that it withered, and exposed the prophet to the elements. Once again things got worse before they got better because of what God sent. Likewise in Numbers 21 verse 6, the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and things went from bad to worse.
If there’s one thing worse than being lost in the outback, it’s being bitten by a snake when you’re lost in the outback. Having grown up in Australia, I can tell you that if you have to be bitten by a snake, it’s best to get bitten in the suburbs of a major city, with easy transport links to the nearest hospital. There are of course many different kinds of deadly snakes in Australia, and they each have their own variety of deadly venom, but anti-venom has been developed for all of these varieties, and all the hospitals have supplies.
The main thing they need to know in order to treat you correctly is which kind of snake you have been bitten by. When I was young, I was told that they best way to do this would be to kill the snake that has bitten you, and take it with you to the hospital, so they know which anti-venom to give you. Today, I suppose they would say that all you need to do is to take a photo of the snake on your mobile phone.
But whatever you do, don’t get bitten in the outback, hundreds of miles from any hospital. If you do, your goose could be cooked, as the Israelites discovered.
Did anything good come of the arrival of these snakes, which in the mystery of God’s providence were said to have been sent by the LORD, and which on the face of it made a bad situation far worse?
On the evidence of the verses we are reading, something good did come, which was the realisation on the part of the Israelites that what they had said was wrong, and their plea for Moses to pray for their deliverance. This was an insight they did not have previously, and it was as hard-won as the insights gained by Jonah in the fish, and when exposed to the elements. Out of something evil, in the mercy of God, something new, and true, and good, did emerge in the end. I find that encouraging, and I hope that you do too. It helps me to understand and live by the words of the modern hymn which we / sung earlier / will sing later on:
So now we can move on ‘from bad to worse’, and begin to encounter ‘from great to greater’. The great thing is, of course, the fact that the Israelites were delivered from the threat posed by the snakes. They were not delivered in the way they had hoped or imagined – they had asked that the LORD would take the snakes away from them, and that is not what happened – but they were delivered nevertheless. Likewise we must not be surprised if we are not delivered from the trials we undergo in the way we hope or expect. However much we may wish to hear the Lord say that ‘in this world, you will not have trouble’, in the end it is far, far better for us to know his actual promise, that in this world we will have trouble, but take heart, he has overcome the world.
And what a strange and mysterious way the LORD had to heal his people:
[He] said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live’. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
I hope you don’t mind me saying that this is pretty weird, and has long been recognised as being weird. 1600 years ago, the Church Father St Augustine set out the paradox in a sermon, saying that “the serpent is gazed upon, so that the serpent may lose its power … death is gazed upon, so that death may lose its power”.3 But then, it is also a paradox to be told that if you’re bitten by a snake, you should bring the snake with you to hospital to be healed.
So, too, there is a paradox embedded in the production of anti-venom itself. Small, non-harmful doses of venom are injected into domestic animals to trigger the creation of antibodies, which are then harvested and purified from the blood plasma of these animals, and used to neutralise toxins in human bite victims. Such is the miracle of modern medicine.
It must have seemed counter-intuitive to the Israelites to escape death by gazing upon death. And I won’t pretend to explain how this actually worked. To do so, even if such a thing were possible, would be to demythologise it, to strip it of its miraculous nature, and to transform it from a saving act of God into a bright idea of Moses. All I can really say is that we have here a record of a great deliverance from a deadly danger.
The motorist who rescued Carolina Wilga in the outback said to the press that “miracle is a word that gets bandied about a lot, but [in the absence of any outside help she survived 12 days and] went cross country to come to my road”. The word ‘miracle’ is indeed over-used, but any way you look at the story of the bronze snake lifted up on a pole, it is one of remarkable survival in the wilderness. It is a story not of human ingenuity – on the level of human rationality, it does not make any sense at all. Rather, it is a story of the great work of God to save his people, which is the same story we have been hearing week by week in this series of sermons on the book of Numbers.
And now at last we can move through bad to worse, and from great to greater. The New Testament tells us in not so many words that one greater than Moses is here (Hebrews 3:3-4). Specifically in relation to the bronze snake, this is what we are told by in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 14 and 15:
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
This is why it makes sense for this sermon to have a fourth part. We need to explore the backward look at the book of Numbers that is taken by the Gospel writer. As great as it is to be delivered from trouble, to be rescued from starvation or snake-bite in the wilderness, it is far greater to be delivered from one’s own sin.
That is why Jesus, upon once encountering a paralysed man, said ‘Your sins are forgiven’ long before he ever said to him ‘Rise up, take your mat, and walk’. Which is greater to speak: words of physical healing or words of spiritual restoration? Well, at one level it’s easy to string any sentence together whatsoever, but the question really concerns the power required to bring about the state of affairs that the words proclaim. On that level, it’s far greater to say ‘Your sins are forgiven’, and Jesus is in a position not only to speak the forgiveness of sin but actually to bring it about by virtue of being, in the phrase used by John, ‘lifted up’.
Bible scholars tell us that “the first step in [his] ascent is when Jesus is lifted up on the cross; the second step is when he is raised up from death; the final step is when he is lifted up to heaven”.4 “His lifting up will result not only in glory for himself but also in healing for [hu]mankind”.5
This is weird, because crucifixion was the most violent and degrading form of execution known to the ancient world, and most of those passing by a scene of crucifixion would naturally want to avert their gaze away from the horror of the scene. And it is a paradox, as St Augustine says: “Death is gazed upon so that death may lose its power. … In the death of Christ, death died, because life [slaughtered] death, the fullness of life swallowed death, death was devoured in the body of Christ”.6 This truth is not to be explained away, demythologised, or transformed from a work of God into a cunning human plan. As far as human ingenuity goes, it doesn’t make any sense. No-one would have thought that the apparent weakness, shame and futility of Christ on the cross could have effected any sort of deliverance.
But, says Augustine, “just as those who gazed on the serpent did not die because of the serpent’s bite, so those who gaze in faith on the death of Christ are healed of the bite of sins”. The Israelites “were preserved from death for a life in time, but Christ says that [those who believe in him] may have eternal life”.7
And this, the greatest deliverance of all, is what ultimately lies behind the story of God’s preservation of his people, as told throughout the Old Testament book of Numbers. In this world we will have trouble, and things may sometimes appear to go from bad to worse. But we may take heart. Jesus Christ has overcome the world, and our deliverance will be from great to greater.
1 This and all following quotations concerning this story are taken from The Guardian’s 12 July 2025 coverage under the headline ‘Sheer luck: how German backpacker Carolina Wilga was found after 11 nights lost in dense Australian outback’.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” (Hebrews 4:14)
This Sunday we continue our series on Israel travelling in the wilderness.
The story’s told of a monastery where monks took a vow of silence and were only to say two words a year.
After his first year, one monk came before the abbot and said: ‘Better food’.
The abbot obliged, hiring a new chef and improving the food quality at the monastery.
A year later, the monk appeared again to speak his next two words: ‘Warmer blankets’.
The abbot got onto it and purchased new blankets for the monk.
The next year, the monk came in and said: ‘I quit’.
The abbot remarked: ‘Good riddance to him. All he’s done since he got here is complain!’
Over the past few weeks we’ve been thinking about grumbling. We use different words … complaining, moaning, whinging. It’s common enough, and you probably come across it every day. At Wednesday afternoon’s Prime Minister’s Questions, the leader of the opposition couches her moan in the form of six questions. The PM always replies, not with an answer, but with an extended moan about the mess the last government left us in!
It has always been thus. Moses experienced it. The older translations say the people ‘murmured’ against Moses. Lovely word! In Exodus & Numbers, they murmured on 15 different occasions, and that constant negativity must have worn Moses and Aaron right down. Two weeks ago we heard how the people moaned about the food God was providing (manna). They wanted meat, so God responded by deluging them with quail. Then last week we heard that they were moaning about the land God was giving them, because the people were too big and too strong. And this week we see them moaning about Moses and Aaron’s leadership.
The story of Korah’s rebellion, which is the background to Numbers 17, is told in the previous chapter, and it ends with a lot of people dying. You would have thought that after the miraculous deliverance from Egypt, everyone would have felt happy with Moses and Aaron leading them. They had been slaves all their lives, and now there was the prospect of a new home in a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’. But people have short memories and it wasn’t long before the complaints began and, with Korah and his cronies in particular, there was an aggressive challenge to the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
So, in an effort to make it clear to the Israelites whom God wanted to be the high priest, Moses instructed the leaders of each of the 12 tribes to bring their tribal staff or stick. We don’t know exactly what they looked like (maybe quite plain or alternatively with very ornate carvings), but each of them was then placed before the Ark of the Covenant with the name of its tribal leader on it. And God said to Moses, I will make one of those sticks flower, and whoever the stick belongs to, he will be my priest. Amazingly, overnight, one of the sticks did sprout leaves, flowers and even almonds, and it was Aaron’s stick! God had made it crystal clear that Aaron’s tribe, the Levites, would be responsible for overseeing the spiritual life of the nation in future.
Let’s be clear, Aaron is by no means perfect. When Moses was up Mount Sinai receiving the 10 commandments, Aaron failed to stop the people from creating an idol (a golden calf) to worship, yet God still affirms Aaron as high priest. And the importance of this moment is captured in Hebrews 9 where the writer tells us that the Ark of the Covenant contained three things – the stones on which the commandments were written, a jar containing manna, and Aaron’s budding staff.
Now let me just say a few words about leadership and authority. There are two kinds of authority – formal and informal. Formal authority is something we’re pretty familiar with. There’s often some regulatory body that validates someone. So if you want to be a teacher or an electrician or a gas engineer or a lawyer or a nurse or a physiotherapist or even an Anglican priest, you’ll need to be accredited by the relevant body. They authorise you to do your stuff, but usually after some rigorous training and evidence that you’re competent. Informal authority, as you’ve probably guessed, does not involve any regulatory bodies. It’s based more on personal charisma or charm, so you get all sorts of health gurus and even pastors who are personable and persuasive, but they don’t have a recognised qualification or certificate of competence. So you’re left wondering, do these people really know what they’re talking about?
In New Testament times everything was a lot less sophisticated. Those who had formal authority were people like the Teachers of the Law and Pharisees. They didn’t have regulatory bodies like we do now, but they wore a kind of uniform, and the people were encouraged to look up to them. By contrast, Jesus didn’t have any formal qualifications, so you might be surprised to hear me say that His authority was informal. In other words, this whole business of authority, of formal and informal, isn’t an exact science for us. For a whole range of things we very sensibly choose to use someone who’s qualified, but when it comes to spiritual leadership, it’s a bit more complicated. The Catholics and Anglicans are highly regulated, but there have been some scandalous cover-ups in recent years, most notably with the John Smyth case. And the independent, unregulated churches, many of which are currently experiencing huge growth, also have a mixed track record.
So let me make a few general observations about authority and leadership, and our theme of grumbling …
Leadership is necessary
We need leaders! We need people who can see where we need to get to and can chart a course for getting there. That’s true in every walk of life.
Back in 1913, Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, used the idea of an assembly line for building his cars. Along the conveyor belt the car was gradually built, each worker concentrating on one particular task. Ford managed to cut individual production times for his Model-T car from 12½ to 1½ hours!
In an age of decline (the Anglican Church in England has seen falling numbers year on year for 70 years), churches need to reconnect more than ever. People with ideas and vision are few and far between, so we need to pray that God will raise up good leaders.
Leaders need to be encouraged
For a few weeks now we’ve been thinking about the grumbling of God’s people, and this week we’re looking at their complaint that Moses and Aaron were self-appointed leaders. Complaints are always more numerous than compliments. When things go wrong, we look for someone to blame. In football it’s the manager, in business it’s the chief executive. And church leaders also come in for a lot of stick from time to time. We tend to expect good things to be the norm. We’re slow to say ‘thank you’ and quick to criticise. We’re very blessed to have someone in our vicar, Paul, who is a hard worker, not a shirker. And that’s not a given, I can tell you. I’ve seen how hard Paul works. Sometimes people don’t get the appreciation they deserve! Ministers often receive more criticism from inside than outside.
So it’s always worth bringing to mind the instruction of Hebrews 13:17: Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
Actually, on this occasion, Moses and Aaron had done nothing wrong. Korah and his mates were simply after the status Moses and Aaron enjoyed. But they cloaked it cleverly. In Numbers 16:3 they sound like pro-democracy campaigners: You have gone too far! All the members of the community belong to the Lord, and the Lord is with all of us. Why then, Moses, do you set yourself above the Lord’s community? In other words: Moses, you’re an autocrat, a dictator. You’re hogging the limelight. You think you’re more important than the rest of us. Actually, of course, Moses didn’t think that. It was God who had called him and his brother Aaron into positions of leadership, and Korah was simply jealous. There are echoes of this in life. Do you ever feel jealous of those people who’ve been more blessed than you? Maybe they’ve got higher-paid jobs, or their children are better behaved than yours, or they have a nicer house, or they’ve been lucky with their health – and it’s not fair. Life should be a level playing field for everyone, but it’s not.
That’s probably the main point of the Cain and Abel story in Genesis 4. Cain is just angry with God because Abel has been the object of His favour. God tells him to control his envy and anger before it controls him! Sadly he doesn’t. His real anger was against God, but he couldn’t hurt God, so he killed Abel instead.
Jesus is our supreme leader
Human leaders are flawed, sometimes a disappointment. No-one is perfect, and some Christian leaders have proved to be very imperfect. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the scandals.
But notice the parallel between this story and the resurrection of Jesus. In Numbers 17, a dead stick suddenly sprouts leaves and flowers and almonds, and in a similar way a dead Jesus emerges alive and triumphant from a tomb. In the way that God affirmed Aaron’s authority, God affirmed Jesus’ authority by raising Him from the dead. At the end of his Gospel, Matthew records Jesus’ words: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go, and make disciples. In the Book of Acts, the apostles spoke these carefully chosen words – you crucified Him, but God raised Him; you dismissed Him as a deviant, but God affirmed Him as Messiah; you said ‘NO’ to His life, God said a resounding ‘YES’! The NT affirms Jesus as ‘one greater than Moses’ and as the supreme High Priest who can bring us to God, hence our opening verse (Hebrews 4:14).
So in closing, two questions: will you …
Be an encourager rather than a murmurer?
Make Jesus Christ your supreme leader, embracing Him as the priest who can bring you to God?
Becoming a Christian is not that complicated. It begins the moment you say: Jesus, I believe that Your way is the right way for the world, and I’m going to follow You. For my part, I hope to do that for as long as I live, and I hope you will too.
St. George's Church Ramsgate 