Theme: The Father’s care
I am sure most of us will know John Masefield’s poem
"Sea-Fever",
we might have learnt them at school:
The opening two lines are these:
I must down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
but as as this poem about
boats and the sea unfolds,
John Masefield, it turns out, is also speaking about the voyage of life
life’s voyage, life’s direction.....
all I
ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by
And reading the poem, we may
well ask ourselves
what
star do we steer by ?
what
star do we steer by ?
I was read a book recently,
about the
shipwrecks
of the
You see, there is a clear
channel in from the sea, into the Firth, which goes right up the middle of the
whether
through sheer bad navigation, or simple mistakes in calculations,
or
human folly, with all the crew below deck,
or through great storms and gale force winds, forces beyond the control of any captain or crew.
One that sticks in my mind, is how a steam cargo ship from the Baltic got grounded
on the rocks of Inchkeith island in the 1930s. As the steamer came into the
Firth of Forth late
one winter’s evening, the boat ran into a thick haar, dense fog. There was, as
the poet says: no star to steer by. The captain slowed the boat right down, looking
for the lighthouses on either side of the
In the fog,
with no star to steer by, the wrong light. A moment or two of watching
would have shown the main light to starboard.
Not a star, but a light, the
light to steer the ship by.
If, like the poet, we think of
life as a voyage,
What star, or better still,
what light, do we steer by ?
That’s what Jesus is talking
about, as we read it in Matthew’s gospel chapter 6, in the Sermon on the
Mount...........
the
light we steer by in life,
the
one we take our proper bearings from.
the
deepest thing in life.........
It is, says Jesus, the Father
in heaven who loves us.
our
Father, who loves us,
He is the light we steer by in
life,
the
One we take our proper bearings from.........
the
Father who loves us........
He is The One, says Jesus, who
has made all things, ....
who
made the birds that sing on mornings like this, He is the One who cares for
them, and feeds them,
He is the One who made the
flowers in the fields that make us stop just to see how beautiful they are.....
Then, can’t you see, Jesus
says to us, if the Father shows such care for the birds, takes such care with the
flowers, will He who knows all that you need not take even greater care with you ?
Now, of course, these are not
just words, Jesus is saying,
He is not giving simply an
interesting lecture on the characteristics, the attributes of God.... after
which his hearers can all go home and discuss the finer points - the word of
Jesus here, is much more dynamic, and moving,
and
direct. In fact, this is an invitation, His invitation to you and me..........
to
come to the Father........
to
know God as a Father who loves us,
This is an invitation from
Jesus to give ourselves into the Father’s care, to trust Him for everything and
in everything !
Deeper still, this is an
invitation from Jesus to enter into
the
same relationship with the Father, that He Himself has.............
Jesus Himself lives, giving
Himself utterly into the Father’s care, trusting Him for everything, and in
everything...... those last words of Jesus at the Cross
‘Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit’
are words spoken from His own life, a life lived from its beginning to its
end........
utterly
in the Father’s care, trusting Him for everything, and in everything......
surely
we must pause here for a moment, in reverence here........
to
think of the glory, the wonder of that.........
Now, Jesus lovingly holds the
door open for us, and invites us to step into the same relationship with the
Father as He has Himself.............
more
than this, in the parable He told of the prodigal Son, Jesus declares to us
that like the father in the story, our Father in heaven waits for us,
longingly,
to
draw us to Himself, to welcome us home.... lovingly.
That relationship between
Jesus and the Father, the Son and the Father is, of course, unfolded all
through John’s Gospel........
the gospel as it is in John declares that Jesus has come from the Father, and will return to the Father.......... but, to say it once again, we can share that relationship with the Father:
Jesus lovingly holds the door
open for us, and invites us to step into the same relationship with the Father
as He has Himself.............
If anyone loves me, he will
obey my teaching says Jesus in John’s Gospel....
my
Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him........
Now, when we give ourselves
into the Father’s care, trust Him..........
at
the invitation of Jesus.............
There is so much that follows, that will follow from this,
and
some of these things Jesus speaks about, as we hear in Matthew 6.
When we give ourselves into
the Father’s care, trust Him..........
at
the invitation of Jesus.............
we
find our lives are then re-ordered.
the
way we treat others,
the
way we act......
the
way we speak.......changes..........
in
Matthew’s gospel, this re-ordering of
life,
is
known as the
So that, Jesus is not simply
saying to us that when we give ourselves into the Father’s care, come to trust
Him.......... this might add another interesting option to life, another
dimension to the rich tapestry of life..............
no,
to live in the Father’s care, to trust Him.......... at the invitation of
Jesus,
is the whole thing, life itself. This is
the star to steer by, the beacon, the light we have
been looking for...........
the
main point............... the main clue, the whole thing.........
This is why Jesus says put
this relationship with the Father first..............
allow
this new order, this new way of life to spring to full life within you,
allow
this to be your way of living...........
and
you will find the whole of life ordered - everything...........
this
is the meaning of the word of Jesus:
seek
first His kingdom
and
His righteousness
and all these things will be given to you as well..................
This is why Jesus says:
Do not worry, about life,
food, clothing,
do
not be stressfully anxious, tormented by anxiety and worry.
For, in the Father who loves
us,
we
have everything,
this
is, the star to steer by, the beacon, the light we have been looking
for...........
we
have in Him the main point in life............... the main clue, the whole
thing......... hearing the invitation of Jesus,
trusting
in our Father in heaven,
we have the pearl of great
price, we have that which can never be taken away from us, we have the Father’s
care, we have, the Father’s love
AMEN