WEBVTT 00:00:05.929 --> 00:00:09.050 Kia ora and welcome to the St Francis Church 00:00:09.050 --> 00:00:11.570 sermon podcast. We're so glad that you've joined 00:00:11.570 --> 00:00:14.970 us. Our prayer is that as you listen, you would 00:00:14.970 --> 00:00:17.910 encounter God's presence. Be refreshed in your 00:00:17.910 --> 00:00:20.769 faith and equipped for everyday life with Jesus. 00:00:21.629 --> 00:00:24.289 As a church, we are learning to faithfully follow 00:00:24.289 --> 00:00:27.899 Jesus by practicing His way at His pace. For 00:00:27.899 --> 00:00:30.899 more info about who we are and what God is doing 00:00:30.899 --> 00:00:36.799 among us, head to stfrancis .co .nz. Grace and 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:44.219 peace. We're in week four and this month's gone 00:00:44.219 --> 00:00:47.679 rather quick. Week four of this series, and it's 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:50.039 not just the end of a series, it's actually a 00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:53.960 continuation. I wonder how you've gone with some 00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:58.920 of the practices. in this booklet here this morning 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:01.299 that you've had. Remember, that's not just something 00:01:01.299 --> 00:01:06.000 that's to be put aside as of today, the end of 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:08.379 the series here, but something to carry through 00:01:08.379 --> 00:01:11.480 with you in those practices to learn. I want 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:14.159 to sit this morning with one of the most counter 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.439 -cultural truths in all of scripture, because 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:18.420 it cuts directly against everything that our 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:23.540 culture, I believe today, worships. is that our 00:01:23.540 --> 00:01:27.480 culture worships scale. Big performances, numbers, 00:01:27.780 --> 00:01:34.319 big launches, personalities, big impact. We measure 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:38.379 everything by just how big, how visible, how 00:01:38.379 --> 00:01:41.420 fast, and how much the reach goes. Now think 00:01:41.420 --> 00:01:47.379 of the FIFA Cup, or the good and the not so good. 00:01:47.769 --> 00:01:51.010 in there, that's been put out there. It's trying 00:01:51.010 --> 00:01:55.489 to make something really huge global. But most 00:01:55.489 --> 00:01:58.290 of what God is doing in you and I this week, 00:01:58.329 --> 00:02:00.670 last week, and all the weeks that are to come, 00:02:01.430 --> 00:02:06.209 never make the news. It will not trend. No one 00:02:06.209 --> 00:02:10.710 will clap. It will look really like on the outside 00:02:10.710 --> 00:02:14.050 of everyday life, like nothing at all. A bit 00:02:14.050 --> 00:02:17.490 like a mustard seed dropped into dirt. a pinch 00:02:17.490 --> 00:02:20.870 of yeast folded into flour that you don't see, 00:02:21.009 --> 00:02:25.289 a coin buried in a field that nobody actually 00:02:25.289 --> 00:02:28.650 thought to dig. This morning on our last Sunday 00:02:28.650 --> 00:02:32.310 of the Slow Apprenticeship, I want to talk about 00:02:32.310 --> 00:02:35.330 the strange, the quiet, and the stubborn shape 00:02:35.330 --> 00:02:39.449 of the kingdom of God, where it's small and it's 00:02:39.449 --> 00:02:42.710 hidden, and because it's sustained by a love 00:02:42.710 --> 00:02:46.740 that is not going to let you go. It's able to 00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:50.979 outlast anything asked of it. Now, there's a 00:02:50.979 --> 00:02:53.580 sentence in the Genesis reading set down for 00:02:53.580 --> 00:02:57.479 today, 29, that grabs me. It's talking about 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:01.419 how Jacob is in love with Rachel. And he's fled 00:03:01.419 --> 00:03:05.719 to his uncle Liban's country. And he met this 00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:09.939 young woman at a well. And the text says simply, 00:03:10.659 --> 00:03:15.840 Jacob loved Rachel. And then his uncle goes on 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:19.319 to say, what shall I pay you? And then Jacob 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:22.080 says back to him, well, I'll serve you seven 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:26.219 years for your younger daughter, Rachel. Seven 00:03:26.219 --> 00:03:29.580 years of shepherding. Seven years of long days 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:33.439 and longer nights of weather and dust and rain 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:36.500 and watching the after sheep that do not appreciate 00:03:36.500 --> 00:03:42.599 you. Seven years of waiting. And then the sentence. 00:03:42.990 --> 00:03:47.370 in verse 20. So Jacob served seven years for 00:03:47.370 --> 00:03:51.469 Rachel. And they seemed to him but a few days 00:03:51.469 --> 00:03:56.490 because of the love he had for her. A few days. 00:03:57.189 --> 00:04:01.289 Seven years of hard labor. And to him it felt 00:04:01.289 --> 00:04:04.009 like a few days because of love that he had for 00:04:04.009 --> 00:04:08.590 Rachel. Now I'm going to start here because that 00:04:08.590 --> 00:04:12.340 one sentence I believe is how the kingdom actually 00:04:12.340 --> 00:04:15.300 grows, and how the Christian life that you and 00:04:15.300 --> 00:04:20.240 I live actually works at depth. I think most 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:23.139 of us tend to imagine that going deep with God 00:04:23.139 --> 00:04:26.680 will mean a steady supply of mountaintop experiences 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:30.939 and moments. A life that feels like a highlight 00:04:30.939 --> 00:04:35.220 reel. Well, life's not like that, and you could 00:04:35.220 --> 00:04:39.209 agree with that too. It is much more often small 00:04:39.209 --> 00:04:42.209 and hidden. A seed you cannot see doing anything. 00:04:42.750 --> 00:04:46.389 It's like a pinch of yeast inside the dough. 00:04:46.550 --> 00:04:51.490 Seven years of ordinary labour. Which nobody 00:04:51.490 --> 00:04:55.449 outside the family even notices. And it is a 00:04:55.449 --> 00:04:59.350 love. Not our strength that makes it hidden, 00:04:59.730 --> 00:05:03.050 unglamorous, labour, bearable, or even sweet. 00:05:04.990 --> 00:05:08.920 Now there's a word. from their old craft guilds, 00:05:09.019 --> 00:05:10.639 and it's called the Journeyman. And someone came 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:14.279 up to me after the service and said that they 00:05:14.279 --> 00:05:17.399 were called a Journeyman in their apprentice 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:23.759 life many years ago. The Journeyman was the apprentice 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:27.879 who had not yet become a master, but the Journeyman 00:05:27.879 --> 00:05:30.139 was the person who had stayed long enough to 00:05:30.139 --> 00:05:33.939 be trusted with the work. The Journeyman is the 00:05:33.939 --> 00:05:36.240 one who did not leave when everyone else said, 00:05:36.350 --> 00:05:40.550 Wow, nothing's really happening. Who kept doing 00:05:40.550 --> 00:05:43.329 the small, the invisible tasks of the trade long 00:05:43.329 --> 00:05:45.870 after the excitement of learning had worn off. 00:05:47.389 --> 00:05:48.930 Now, we all know what that excitement's like 00:05:48.930 --> 00:05:51.430 going into new things and doing stuff. Yes, I've 00:05:51.430 --> 00:05:53.230 got the energy and enthusiasm, and then you've 00:05:53.230 --> 00:05:55.329 got to sweep the floor. You've got to do the 00:05:55.329 --> 00:05:58.829 other stuff. And that excitement wears off. Well, 00:05:58.910 --> 00:06:02.529 the journeyman is one that continues beyond that. 00:06:03.529 --> 00:06:06.149 So what matters most in your life is not what 00:06:06.149 --> 00:06:11.069 you accomplish, but what you become. Now I tried 00:06:11.069 --> 00:06:13.209 in my previous work life to accomplish being 00:06:13.209 --> 00:06:15.689 a millionaire by the time I was 30 and retired. 00:06:17.509 --> 00:06:23.930 That didn't work because I'm here. So God was 00:06:23.930 --> 00:06:25.930 wanting to work on me and to become a better 00:06:25.930 --> 00:06:30.250 person. So he stripped away just about everything. 00:06:31.139 --> 00:06:33.899 Back then I was a journeyman without substance. 00:06:35.139 --> 00:06:38.160 Now the apprenticeship years since then have 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.040 built a far greater substance and character than 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:44.500 any millions of dollars could actually do. So 00:06:44.500 --> 00:06:48.920 this morning, with the reading of Genesis 29, 00:06:49.959 --> 00:06:54.100 Romans 8, and Matthew 13, I actually want to 00:06:54.100 --> 00:06:57.040 talk with you about what it means to be a journeyman 00:06:57.040 --> 00:07:00.639 of the kingdom. to keep doing the small, the 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:04.120 hidden things for as long as it takes so that 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:10.480 we become someone different. Because going deep 00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:15.839 is one thing, growing up is another. And the 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:18.420 season of this ordinary time that we're in is 00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:21.199 a school in which both happen mostly out of sight. 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:23.459 It's something that we learn to do. So I'm going 00:07:23.459 --> 00:07:25.839 to carry on with Jacob. We're now seven years 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:30.029 have passed. And Jacob asks for Rachel and there's 00:07:30.029 --> 00:07:33.110 a wedding feast, the bride has failed. Jacob 00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:35.290 lies with her in the dark and wakes in the morning 00:07:35.290 --> 00:07:38.790 to discover that his uncle has substitute Leah, 00:07:39.089 --> 00:07:44.069 the older sister. The very man who once deceived 00:07:44.069 --> 00:07:47.089 his blind father has now been deceived by his 00:07:47.089 --> 00:07:50.550 uncle. There's a kind of awful justice in it, 00:07:50.610 --> 00:07:53.589 isn't it? And his uncle says, now it is not the 00:07:53.589 --> 00:07:55.649 custom in our country to marry off the younger 00:07:55.649 --> 00:07:59.079 before the older. Complete the bridal week of 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:01.339 this one and I'll give you the other daughter 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:05.600 in exchange for serving me another seven years. 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:13.839 Seven more years. 14 years total for one woman 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:20.259 and Jacob does it. He stays. He had not yet become 00:08:20.259 --> 00:08:23.839 Israel, he's still known as Jacob. This name 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:26.930 that would come later. in a night of resting 00:08:26.930 --> 00:08:30.730 many years from now. But he kept the apprenticeship. 00:08:31.470 --> 00:08:34.090 He stayed in the field doing small work no one 00:08:34.090 --> 00:08:38.309 was watching for seven more years. Now think 00:08:38.309 --> 00:08:40.690 about what this story is actually teaching us 00:08:40.690 --> 00:08:45.889 today. Jacob, who is the heel grabber, the supplanter, 00:08:45.950 --> 00:08:48.809 the man who once swindled his brother and tricked 00:08:48.809 --> 00:08:52.389 his father, is now being slowly formed by love 00:08:52.389 --> 00:08:57.750 and labor into someone different. Now, the arc 00:08:57.750 --> 00:09:01.169 of Jacob's life is like the slow conversion of 00:09:01.169 --> 00:09:05.169 a clever young man into Israel, the one who then 00:09:05.169 --> 00:09:08.950 eventually wrestles with God. And the workshop 00:09:08.950 --> 00:09:11.169 of that transformation is not a spiritual high 00:09:11.169 --> 00:09:15.529 for him. It is 14 years of shepherding, hidden 00:09:15.529 --> 00:09:19.029 in the hills for a woman that he loves. This 00:09:19.029 --> 00:09:23.169 is how God grows people up, you and I, slowly. 00:09:24.340 --> 00:09:26.940 Through faithful, sometimes disappointing labour 00:09:26.940 --> 00:09:31.559 that actually nobody else sees. Through promises 00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:34.159 kept past the point of feeling like keeping them. 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:38.039 I think we've all been there. Our Lord, I promise 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:41.299 to do this. Nah, it's tiring. I'll give up. Through 00:09:41.299 --> 00:09:44.039 love that holds when other things would have 00:09:44.039 --> 00:09:47.200 walked away. I've shared this saying, and I think 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:49.139 it's a beautiful saying from Eugene Peterson. 00:09:49.980 --> 00:09:52.460 He called it a long obedience in the same direction. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:55.659 to stay there. It's an obedience to stay on that 00:09:55.659 --> 00:09:59.000 path. That's Jacob. That's the journeyman. That's 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:01.960 a slow apprenticeship. That's you and I, which 00:10:01.960 --> 00:10:05.980 is exactly what Paul says in Romans 8. He opens 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:10.240 this chapter with no condemnation. And now he's 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:12.659 bringing it home with these words. He says the 00:10:12.659 --> 00:10:15.720 Spirit helps us in our weakness. The Spirit prays 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:18.980 in our groans with sighs too deep for words. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:25.090 God works all things. together for good for those 00:10:25.090 --> 00:10:28.889 who love him. And then he reaches his crescendo 00:10:28.889 --> 00:10:32.970 in Romans 8. Who shall separate us from the love 00:10:32.970 --> 00:10:37.350 of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution 00:10:37.350 --> 00:10:42.230 or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? But 00:10:42.230 --> 00:10:45.190 then he goes on with these verses and he answers 00:10:45.190 --> 00:11:10.570 his own question. No. Do you hear what Paul is 00:11:10.570 --> 00:11:14.870 doing here as he's saying these words? He's not 00:11:14.870 --> 00:11:17.929 promising you a problem -free life. You're going 00:11:17.929 --> 00:11:21.129 to get it. He has just listed seven categories 00:11:21.129 --> 00:11:24.929 of difficulty. Tribulation, distress, persecution, 00:11:25.330 --> 00:11:33.330 famine, nakedness, peril, sword. He knows the 00:11:33.330 --> 00:11:36.590 Christian life will involve all of these. He 00:11:36.590 --> 00:11:39.649 himself has been imprisoned, shipwrecked. He's 00:11:39.649 --> 00:11:41.929 hungry, he's been beaten, he's been betrayed. 00:11:43.049 --> 00:11:45.789 He's not promising you, Rachel, without the seven 00:11:45.789 --> 00:11:49.919 years. Are you saying, OK people, you've got 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:53.879 seven years, maybe 14 years to move through things. 00:11:54.759 --> 00:11:58.840 He is promising here for us a love that holds 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:02.179 across those seven years, a love that stays with 00:12:02.179 --> 00:12:06.179 you in the small, hidden, unnoticed places, that 00:12:06.179 --> 00:12:08.899 you work, that you live, and that you move for 00:12:08.899 --> 00:12:13.059 as long as it takes. He is promising here with 00:12:13.059 --> 00:12:15.039 these words that the one who loves you cannot 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:17.759 be driven off by anything that you might do, 00:12:17.980 --> 00:12:23.679 be talked out of it, or frightened away, or outlasted. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:27.200 He is promising you and I that the very things 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:29.740 that would have separated other lovers from each 00:12:29.740 --> 00:12:34.259 other, height, depth, presence, and future, cannot 00:12:34.259 --> 00:12:38.639 separate you from God and Christ. This is the 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:41.059 love that we have that makes the seven years 00:12:41.059 --> 00:12:44.870 feel like a few days. for us is the love that 00:12:44.870 --> 00:12:47.009 keeps an apprentice faithful to the small and 00:12:47.009 --> 00:12:50.009 the hidden work that we do as disciples of Christ. 00:12:50.330 --> 00:12:53.049 People throughout time have talked about the 00:12:53.049 --> 00:12:56.409 love of God, given us examples through their 00:12:56.409 --> 00:13:00.830 life. Now Julia Norwich was one. Writing from 00:13:00.830 --> 00:13:04.309 a cell in Norwich centuries ago, she had faced 00:13:04.309 --> 00:13:08.129 plague and grief in a country in upheaval. She 00:13:08.129 --> 00:13:11.340 put her whole theology into one sentence. all 00:13:11.340 --> 00:13:14.039 shall be well, and all manner of thing shall 00:13:14.039 --> 00:13:15.879 be well. She did not say that because it would 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:18.700 be easy. She said it because she had stayed everything 00:13:18.700 --> 00:13:21.919 on the love Paul is describing, a love that holds 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:25.159 whatever comes our way. Which is why Jesus tells 00:13:25.159 --> 00:13:28.200 us in the parables of Matthew 13, there's five 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:30.220 quick parables in a row that we heard this morning, 00:13:30.360 --> 00:13:32.720 that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:36.820 seed, the smallest of all seeds, that grows into 00:13:36.820 --> 00:13:39.360 a tree then large enough for the birds to rest 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:41.610 in. And the kingdom of heaven is like yeast, 00:13:42.169 --> 00:13:44.950 that woman hides in the measures of flour until 00:13:44.950 --> 00:13:49.289 leavens the whole batch. And it also like treasure 00:13:49.289 --> 00:13:52.230 hidden in a field, which someone found and hid, 00:13:52.649 --> 00:13:54.929 then in his joy goes and sells all that he has 00:13:54.929 --> 00:13:57.629 and buys that field, even though he had everything. 00:13:57.809 --> 00:14:00.190 And again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant. 00:14:00.509 --> 00:14:03.529 in search of fine pearls. On finding one pearl 00:14:03.529 --> 00:14:05.610 of great value, he weaned and sold all that he 00:14:05.610 --> 00:14:07.909 had and bought it. And then the kingdom of heaven 00:14:07.909 --> 00:14:11.149 is like a net let down in the sea that catches 00:14:11.149 --> 00:14:14.029 every kind of fish. Do you hear and see what 00:14:14.029 --> 00:14:16.789 these have in common? Smallness, hiddenness, 00:14:17.330 --> 00:14:20.470 patience, cost, worth. The kingdom of God is 00:14:20.470 --> 00:14:23.970 really loud. It is not flashy, even though our 00:14:23.970 --> 00:14:26.990 God owns and created everything. It's like the 00:14:26.990 --> 00:14:29.799 mustard seeded... It is a treasure that no one 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:32.679 has dug up. It is a pearl among many shells. 00:14:32.899 --> 00:14:34.879 And here's what that means for Christian maturity 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:38.679 as we journey in this faith life following Jesus. 00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:41.320 Growing up in faith, well that means learning 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:43.779 to be unimpressed by what the world is impressed 00:14:43.779 --> 00:14:47.139 by. and learning to be impressed by what God 00:14:47.139 --> 00:14:49.299 is doing in the small and the hidden things in 00:14:49.299 --> 00:14:51.940 our lives. As we go about living day to day, 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:53.960 most of the Kingdom work in your life this week 00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:56.139 will be invisible to others. And that can be 00:14:56.139 --> 00:14:59.059 through the kind word that you spoke when you 00:14:59.059 --> 00:15:02.440 did not have to, or the forgiveness you extended 00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:05.820 in your heart that no one will ever know about, 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:08.440 or the prayer that you've whispered in the carpark 00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:11.200 before you walked into a hard meeting, the faithfulness 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:13.059 that you offered in a marriage on a difficult 00:15:13.059 --> 00:15:16.210 Wednesday. or the hour that you sat with someone 00:15:16.210 --> 00:15:18.549 who was dying. These things do not look like 00:15:18.549 --> 00:15:20.950 a hundredfold harvest. They look like nothing. 00:15:21.509 --> 00:15:24.149 They look like Jacob shepherding in the rain 00:15:24.149 --> 00:15:26.929 for seven years. And yet, this is the kingdom. 00:15:27.809 --> 00:15:30.629 The kingdom that we're in and living in. The 00:15:30.629 --> 00:15:33.389 whole loaf rises because of yeast that no one 00:15:33.389 --> 00:15:36.009 can see. So what do we do with these three texts 00:15:36.009 --> 00:15:38.330 and what do they say to us together? Well Jesus 00:15:38.330 --> 00:15:40.850 tells us that the kingdom we serve is mostly 00:15:40.850 --> 00:15:44.779 hidden. Mostly small, mostly slow. And yet it 00:15:44.779 --> 00:15:47.980 is a treasure worth giving everything for. And 00:15:47.980 --> 00:15:51.000 Jacob teaches us that love makes the long hidden 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:55.919 apprenticeship possible. And Paul tells us that 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:58.360 the love of God in Christ cannot be separated 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:02.519 from us by anything and all creation. Which means 00:16:02.519 --> 00:16:05.059 you and I, we can stay in the small work for 00:16:05.059 --> 00:16:07.559 as long as it takes because God's love is there. 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:12.559 And our love is for Him. This is growing up. 00:16:12.980 --> 00:16:15.980 Christian maturity is not the absence of difficulty 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:19.460 and it is rarely visible from the outside. It 00:16:19.460 --> 00:16:21.860 is the long faithfulness of a love that does 00:16:21.860 --> 00:16:24.259 not quit on the small and the hidden things of 00:16:24.259 --> 00:16:27.419 life. Tish Harrison Warren writes about this 00:16:27.419 --> 00:16:30.539 in the Liturgy of the Ordinary. She says that 00:16:30.539 --> 00:16:33.399 the most formative things in our lives are not 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:37.299 the big crises but the small daily almost unconscious 00:16:37.299 --> 00:16:41.289 habits. The unmade bed, the morning prayer. the 00:16:41.289 --> 00:16:44.730 brushing of teeth. We become what we do when 00:16:44.730 --> 00:16:49.590 no one is looking. Now we can be impressive in 00:16:49.590 --> 00:16:53.710 front of people and groups and crowds and then 00:16:53.710 --> 00:16:55.889 be completely different when we're by ourselves. 00:16:55.990 --> 00:16:57.990 We're not the real person in those big crowds 00:16:57.990 --> 00:17:01.129 when we're like that. We become what we do when 00:17:01.129 --> 00:17:03.730 no one is looking. The kingdom is a mustard seed. 00:17:04.990 --> 00:17:07.950 It's yeast, it's treasure. Most of what God is 00:17:07.950 --> 00:17:09.890 doing in your life right now and through the 00:17:09.890 --> 00:17:12.819 days This week is hidden but it is real and it 00:17:12.819 --> 00:17:15.380 is real treasure. It's only in hindsight in time 00:17:15.380 --> 00:17:17.660 that the seven years will feel like a few days 00:17:17.660 --> 00:17:21.180 because of the love that you have for Him. And 00:17:21.180 --> 00:17:24.759 the love He has for you cannot be separated from 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:27.680 you by death or life or angels or anything else 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:29.880 in all creation. That means that it is open to 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:33.839 you all the time, everywhere. Now what I've been 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:36.160 sharing with you over the past few weeks is not 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:40.450 a system. It's not a program, it's not a hack 00:17:40.450 --> 00:17:44.549 to make life better instantly. It is a life lived 00:17:44.549 --> 00:17:48.210 in proximity to Jesus. And doing that season 00:17:48.210 --> 00:17:50.769 after season, year after year until almost without 00:17:50.769 --> 00:17:53.650 noticing, we have been changed. Most of us do 00:17:53.650 --> 00:17:56.990 not see the changes in ourselves. Often we'll 00:17:56.990 --> 00:17:59.609 get pointed out by someone else that says, I 00:17:59.609 --> 00:18:04.029 see that change happened anew. We will not feel 00:18:04.029 --> 00:18:06.490 transformed. We will not have a moment when we 00:18:06.490 --> 00:18:09.390 look in the mirror and say, aha, I've arrived. 00:18:10.329 --> 00:18:14.170 Everything's set and done. But instead, we will 00:18:14.170 --> 00:18:17.490 become people who love better than we used to. 00:18:17.849 --> 00:18:20.869 We will become people who are more patient than 00:18:20.869 --> 00:18:25.470 we used to be. And we will quietly become people 00:18:25.470 --> 00:18:29.029 whose first instinct in suffering is to turn 00:18:29.029 --> 00:18:31.859 toward God rather than away. we will become over 00:18:31.859 --> 00:18:34.819 decades almost unnoticed, we'll become Christ 00:18:34.819 --> 00:18:37.079 -like. And then one day maybe at the very end 00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:40.079 we will look back over all the long years that 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:43.539 we've lived and we'll see what the apprentice 00:18:43.539 --> 00:18:46.579 Jacob saw at the end of his seven years of labour 00:18:46.579 --> 00:18:50.400 that the years just seemed but a few days because 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:53.960 of the love we had for God and the love that 00:18:53.960 --> 00:18:58.079 he has for us. This is what we have been practicing 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.519 for. We haven't been practicing for visibility, 00:19:01.460 --> 00:19:04.759 or for impact, or for arrival. We've been practicing 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:08.339 because of love. That unconditional love that 00:19:08.339 --> 00:19:12.559 God has for each one of us. The slow, the deep, 00:19:12.740 --> 00:19:15.220 and the quiet love that makes a whole life into 00:19:15.220 --> 00:19:19.200 a single long obedience. Lived small, lived hidden, 00:19:20.099 --> 00:19:24.539 and it's lived well. Knowing that love transforms 00:19:24.539 --> 00:19:27.400 time, love bends time. So I'm going to close 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:29.299 with the words that we've anchored this series 00:19:29.299 --> 00:19:32.259 with from the French priest, the scientist, the 00:19:32.259 --> 00:19:36.339 mystic. His words that he wrote in a letter back 00:19:36.339 --> 00:19:39.319 to his sister when he was a stretcher bearer 00:19:39.319 --> 00:19:43.119 in the First World War. He wrote this, above 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:48.279 all trust in the slow work of God. So may we 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:52.009 walk the slow road together. all the days of 00:19:52.009 --> 00:19:53.769 our lives. Amen.