[Change] Smelly Socks the sermon! James 1:16-17.
I was born in ward three of Nelson Hospital on the 10th of October 1963. In the same year the tape cassette, something that is pretty much redundant was invented, the Beatles released a single “I want to hold your hand” and on my birthday they attended the play `A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum’, at the Strand Theatre.
That year was the year that the troll doll became available for 90 cents, the Underwood Manual Type writer went on the market at $74.40, ladies could buy a bee hive hair piece for $30.99 and a real African leopard collared jacket for $36.90. All of these values are in New Zealand dollars, though the New Zealand dollar did not exist until 1967.
New Zealand’s population was around two and a half million, and was increasing at 2.1% per year. There were four television stations operating in the country at the time, one each in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, each of them operated for 35 hours per week, if you lived outside these main centres there was no telly. But there were forty radio stations, three of them were in Christchurch, none of them FM they were all AM stations, have any of you listened to an AM radio station?.
The average minimum weekly wage for a male was New Zealand 10 pound, 3 shillings and 6 pence per week or in today’s currency around $20.65 cents , that’s New Zealand currency the dollar and decimal currency was not to come for another four years when the New Zealand dollar could buy $1.62 US. Sorry ladies but for a female the weekly wage was $13.65 cents It was going take a fair amount of saving to get that racy leopard collared jacket or the stunningly gorgeous bee hive hair piece.
The average state house was valued at 5600 dollars and 20% of people still cooked their meals on a wood, coke or coal fired ranges, micro wave ovens became available to the public in 1967. Of interest is that if you earned more than 875 pounds a year you could not get a state house. The average house mortgage was 5300 dollars. Also of interest is that 6000 ton’s of Asbestos was used nationwide in housing construction.
New Zealand’s highlight for the year was the visit of Queen Elizabeth the Second and Prince Phillip, her highness attended the races at Addington and presented a cup for a race named after her to the winning jockey, it was a great thing to have the Queen visit!.
I was born into a world of wonder where things were cheap to buy, apart from manual typewriters and leopard collared jackets, jobs were available, baby food was processed through a Mulley and the disposable nappy was invented but was not due for its international release until the early 1970’s, I was toilet trained in cloth nappies. Times were good, I was such a wonderful baby that my parents decided to have two more after me. I lived in a family with my older sister, one of each younger than me and my Mum and Dad, there was also a cat or two and a caged bird hanging out in the background in the Moffatt house. The sixties were cool the seventies were groovy and then reality stuck…I stopped being a child!
Something occurred, I encountered a life changing thing. Now they had warned us about this at Father / Son nights at Intermediate School. My voice started to break, which incidentally gave the rest of the family something else to give me stick about, I became gangly and uncoordinated, my school results became somehow important and I developed a fear of girls, particularly good looking girls, the better looking they were the more afraid I was. I was somehow fascinated but afraid.
Oh yes and my socks needed to be washed regularly. Apparently this life change, like changing socks regularly was change was inevitable, scary and inevitable.
I have heard it said that there only two things in life that are certain excluding death and they are change and taxes. The punch line is; that from one you don’t get the other. Think about it!
So here I was at fifteen / sixteen, I was a slow developer changing into a man, not the most stunning example of manhood but never the less a man. I was growing up. On visiting my Grandfather on Mum’s side, Granddad Inch I was told to brush my hair, this always occurred as soon as he knew I was in voice coverage distance, even if he hadn’t seen me. I was told that at my age I should know better, “Go and brush your hair”. If only he could see me today! (Just to show as an illustration of change I shaved my beard and had a number two hair cut, having started the service looking as I normally do, but wearing a hat). Visiting my other Grandfather Granddad Moffatt was much more fun as I got to dig his garden, talk about rocks, propagate plants, grow vege’s, learn family history, local history, and he always had a joke to tell. He was not well for almost as long as I had known him, straight up he was dying, something that actually happened when I was fifteen. This was a huge blow to me as I was very reliant on my Granddad Moffatt. As a young bloke my Grandfather was a great mentor to me and really was for quite some time, my best mate.
So where I’m going here is that over a short period of time I had encountered some fairly rapid change, which unless you are super human and there’s very few of them out there, though there’s a lot who think they are. Unless you are super human rapid change can have a way of upsetting the apple cart, and unless you have a way of controlling the fall of the apples, damage can occur. I still haven’t got to where I want to get to and this is it.
1) You as a group of people have encountered what I believe to be the most rapid change of any young people outside of war zones, in any place in recent time. Some more than others! And I want to ask a question.
But first the city you are living in is changing at an astronomical rate, today a fourteen story building was blown up in seven seconds, one of roughly six hundred in the Central Business District that is coming down, plus thousands of homes.( Christchurch the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand has been hit by a series of eartquakes since September 2012, three of which have given cause for most of the CBD to be demolished along with many residential properties).
Again change is inevitable and after all these buildings come down they have to be replaced somewhere, somehow, all this is change…In the meantime you are all at points where some pretty key sort of stuff is happening in your lives. Now this stuff is dependent on other important stuff; family stuff, growing stuff, relationship stuff, school stuff, work stuff, youth group stuff, future decision stuff…lots and lots of stuff. The thing is that all this stuff can get confusing even when you don’t live in a rapidly changing environment, stuff can be stressful and demanding.
The question I’m going to ask and I don’t want an answer for it just now and I will probably see it on your faces anyhow is, “with all this change and changing stuff, how is it going for you?”
Now I’ve left you hanging on that question and related it to change I want to talk about God. I want to do the whole thing about why be in a relationship with him? Now if this is your first time in a church please don’t be too concerned about this next bit, God comes into just about everything that happens in church, so here we go.
2) So why be in a relationship with God? The answer is, because everything that you encounter in life is changing and when you get to my age you find it changes at a rapid rate. Everything changes, jobs, friendships, trees, houses. Cities, favourite shops, cars, Corps Officers, menus, routines, Cities, and smelly socks.
The guts of where I’m going here is that God however does not change, “He is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow”.[Hebrews 13:8]. James in his letter and incidentally if you are getting going on the Christian Journey, I believe that the book of James holds some of the best teaching for young people available. It’s been key to me in my journey since I made a decision to follow Jesus at sixteen. James was Jesus brother; the two of them had Mary as their mum they grew up in the same house. James came to believe Jesus was Lord after Jesus resurrection, up until then Jesus family were a bit concerned that he had over stepped the mark a little and heading off on a strange tangent.
So this brother of Jesus, James comes out with a line that is of importance to Christians, who are struggling with trials and temptations, with change and it is this “Don’t be deceived dear brothers [and sisters]. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, [and this is a kicker description of God], who does not change like the shifting shadows. (James 1:16-17) So God does not change, everything else changes mountains rise and fall, tower block buildings rise and fall, the Beatles are no longer number one, The New Zealand dollar buys roughly half as many US dollars as it used to, leopard collared jackets are no longer in vogue, type writer manufactures are no longer in business, the last typewriter ever was manufactured last year, these tent’s we call our bodies don’t last, but you can however still purchase a troll doll, but the price is now $20.00. The key point here is that God never changes.
The reason I’m going down this track is that having walked the Christian walk since I was about your age, I want you to be aware of how life will continue to change around you but God is the one thing that will not change, when the going gets tough God will still be true to his promises, he will still be your salvation, His Holy Spirit if you have asked Him to will still reside in you, when others let you down, when you struggle with life God is still the same.
Deuteronomy 31:6 puts it this way; “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” The them in this case were the nations who at that time lived in the ‘Promised Land’ we see this echoed in the book of Hebrews in relation to stuff that changes, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you never will I forsake you.’” Hebrews13:5. Now that’s a bit counter cultural and even points to eternity. Living as we do in a time when a lot of people believe the richest man in the graveyard is the winner.
Remember the picture of the flash manual typewriter that was the peak of key board technology in 1963, it has been relegated to landfills and corner shelves in garages across the world, just as and don’t get too concerned about this, just as will your flash new cell phone or I Pad. By the time you reach forty; none of the brand spanking technology that you own will be current. The latest fashions like the leopard collared jacket or bee hive hair piece will be regarded as naff, if not revolting and ecologically unsustainable.
The thing is that around you many things will change, God will not, his promises will always be true.
To live a life that has meaning in this changing world, to live less stressed lives, advance on your faith journey, hold onto the hope that is an anchor point for your whole being, the hope that keeps you secure as change rages around you. Love God with all of yourself. For this faith, hope and love is found in Jesus who made it possible for us to be in an eternal relationship with God who does not change.
For God unlike things and even relationships with other people does not change. All the best things in your lives will come from Him, from our Heavenly Father who does not change like shifting shadows. He has given us life through Jesus Christ.
Response.
