Technical difficulties precluded inclusion of video in this post, maybe an answer to your prayers? We’ll try and do better next time! Alan

 

Sermon Preached Sunday August 16th 2020. “Under Full Warranty”

Romans 11:29 “The gifts and call of God are irrevocable.” Or as the Message Translation reads, “God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty – never cancelled, never rescinded.”

“Under full warranty” – oh dear, my experience of warranties have made me cynical, world-weary, pessimistic… all tending to despair.
But in the economy of God, it is literally a world of difference. Our God puts her/his very name, character and reputation on “the warranty” that accompanies the bequest of gifts and the announcement of our call.

“Under full warranty” – it would be an enormous understatement to say that Joseph’s progress towards the situation in today’s reading was plain and uninterrupted.
His call was interrupted, beset, troubled by malicious brothers, avaricious salesmen, paranoid politicians seductive women and natural crises and yet he knew he was “under full warranty” – the gifts, the call of his God were irrevocable.
It is this conviction that led him to welcome his brothers (and what a poignant moment that must have been!), recount their common and separate history and use, in that narrative, this powerful refrain: Genesis 45:5 “BUT God sent…” 45:7 “BUT God sent…” and 45:8 “Not you… BUT God sent…”. I once preached a sermon on the theological power of the word “BUT” in this chapter; it addresses our conviction that God is constant and Her/His purpose “under full warranty, irrevocable”.

Our friend (though the friend of no-one else) the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 suffers all the disdain, dismissal, dereliction of being an outcast – a woman, a Gentile, alone and a nuisance. She is rejected by the disciples and apparently ignored by Jesus.
The woman encounters that which is surely most enervating, disabling, fearful… for each of us… the silence of God! Matthew 15:23 “But he did not answer her a word.” But, thank God, there is in her heart, in her mind, in her soul a pulsating conviction (albeit inarticulate) that if only she hangs in there, if only she grasps at Jesus as a drowning man grasps at a lifeline… she will secure her goal… because “the gifts and call of God are irrevocable, under full warranty.”

Friends, we know what it is to be like Joseph – estranged from family, buffeted by circumstances beyond our control, confronted with challenges almost overwhelming, sorely aching for a return to normality. But deep within his psyche he grasped and was grasped by this conviction… “that the gifts and call of God are irrevocable, under full warranty.”

Friends, we know what it is to be like the Canaanite woman (some of us more than others) – ignored, belittled, misunderstood. Carrying in our hearts the sickness and fracture of those we love. But deep within her psyche she grasped and was grasped by this conviction… “that the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable, under full warranty.”

I finish with two stories – one from Scripture and from told me this week.

A new friend told me that Thursday he drove from Goldsboro to the shore and as he was driving there was in front of him the most dark and threatening gathering of storm clouds and yet as the sun rose behind those clouds a bright glow began to surround the darkness and ultimately dispel it. We do not deny nor minimalize our dark clouds but as we look intently we see the glow sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly encroaching upon the darkness. God is constant and her/his gifts and call “under full warranty.”

And the Bible story from John 6:46-54, in Friday’s readings from Morning Prayer. You remember the story… the royal official pleads with Jesus to heal his son. Jesus seems to relent and promises health. The official sets off and is met by his servants who tell of his son’s recovery and that it happened when Jesus spoke the words of healing. What I have not noticed before (in nearly 60 years of Bible reading) is the servants’ statement that it happened “yesterday”.

You see… that royal official traveled for many hours, maybe even overnight, convinced that the gift and call of healing had been given to his son… but he traveled in faith and trust. How? Why? He knew the truth of our text:
Romans 11:29 “The gifts and call of God are irrevocable.” Or as the Message Translation reads, “God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty – never cancelled, never rescinded.”
Thanks be to God.
Amen