John – Apostle & Evangelist

Mentmore – Sunday 27 December 2009

Reading 1 John 1

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Gospel John 21.19b-25

Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me!”

Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumour spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

Sermon

Church – John Apostle & Evangelist

Is this same person? What do we know?

Apostle
One of 12 disciples
Only one to live to old age
Son of Zebedee and Salome – brother of James the Greater – Boanerges (Sons of Thunder)
Origin fishermen with father – lake of Genessaret
May have been disciples of John the Baptist
One of most prominent disciples of Jesus
Peter James John – only witnesses to:
Raising of Jairus’s daughter
Transfiguration
Agony in Gethsemane
John leaned on Christ’s breast at Last Supper
May be the anonymous “beloved disciple” in John’s gospel
Only disciple to remain with women at foot of cross
John became founder and pillar of church
Usually represented as eagle

Evangelist
John very different from synoptic gospels
More unified – after Prologue, gospel arranged in two parts – first laid out in 4 geographical groupings – second book contained farewell discourses, death, burial and resurrection
Full of contrasts – light/dark; heaven above/earth beneath; truth/falsehood

Is Evangelist and Apostle same person? Probably not – gospel not finalised until 90 – 100AD – but may have been substantially the word of John the apostle, and rearranged later on.

John of Patmos
Writer of 2 and 3 John; Revelation
Also called John the Divine
Tradition has it he is the same as John the Evangelist

Today’s gospel
Comes from end of John, but taken on its own makes little sense. John seems to end with chapter 20:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. But these things are written so you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

The following chapter starts with Peter fishing again, and the miraculous catch when Jesus appears and tells Peter to cast his net on the right side of the boat. Jesus then gives Peter instructions about the church. Peter promises three times to love his flock, cancelling out the three denials before the cock crew.

Peter turns and sees the disciple whom Jesus loved, and asks Jesus about him. Jesus replies If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

It’s a strange reply – it seems to indicate John will remain alive until the second coming. The disciple whom Jesus loved is then identified as the writer of the gospel, and there the book ends.

Peter will eventually be crucified like his master, but John lives to a ripe old ages and is probably buried in Ephesus.

John’s Gospel and I John
Regardless of who was the writer – and I suppose a later redactor using material from John the son of Zebedee looks very possible – the gospel means more to many Christians than any other book in the Bible. But today I want to draw your attention to the similarity between John 1 and I John 1 – and especially the relevance of what John says about his church to what we see today.

John 1 opens with those familiar verses about the Word, identified with Christ, who was with God in the beginning and was God. The author of I john 1 declares he is witness to the word of life. He has seen it, testifies to it, and declares to us what was revealed to him.

John’s gospel talks about the relationship of God and Jesus Christ. I John says we can have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

John’s gospel tells us Jesus is the light that shines in darkness. I John declares that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. We are to walk in this light and have fellowship with one another and with God.

The two chapters are strikingly similar. But it’s this business of having fellowship with each other in the light that John goes on to apply to his church. He is distraught over a schism in the church whereby Christians are falling out about who Jesus was, and what difference his coming has made. John writes with the heartfelt hope that our joy will be consummated.

We can apply this plea that we should all walk in the fellowship of the light and in joy with each other to the sorry state of our church today – falling out over sexuality, the appointment of women as bishops, and other divisions even less important than the real differences that split the early church in the first century AD.

John’s words resonate in the Anglican communion as strongly today as they did when they were first written:

⁹ Those who claim to be in the light but hate a fellow believer are still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Those who love their fellow believers live in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. ¹¹ But those who hate a fellow believer are in the darkness and walk around in the darkness; they do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

My hope, frail though it might be, is that the message of Christmas leads us to listen more to each other. May we take these words of John to heart and walk together in the light.

Christmas Day

8.30 am Holy Communion

Reading Isaiah 62.6-12

I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
they will never be silent day or night.
You who call on the LORD,
give yourselves no rest,
and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem
and makes her the praise of the earth.
The LORD has sworn by his right hand
and by his mighty arm:
“Never again will I give your grain
as food for your enemies,
and never again will foreigners drink the new wine
for which you have toiled;
but those who harvest it will eat it
and praise the LORD,
and those who gather the grapes will drink it
in the courts of my sanctuary.”
Pass through, pass through the gates!
Prepare the way for the people.
Build up, build up the highway!
Remove the stones.
Raise a banner for the nations.
The LORD has made proclamation
to the ends of the earth:
“Say to the Daughter of Zion,
‘See, your Saviour comes!
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.’”
They will be called the Holy People,
the Redeemed of the LORD;
and you will be called Sought After,
the City No Longer Deserted.

Gospel Luke 2.1-14(15-20)

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

There were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Sermon

Christmas Day. What can I say that has not already been said many times? The words of Luke 2 are so familiar we almost know them off by heart.

You may wonder why we always seem to read Luke’s gospel at Christmas? The reason is simple. Although Luke drew heavily on Mark’s account when writing his gospel, as indeed did Matthew – Mark has no infancy narrative. He dives straight in with the proclamation of John the Baptist. After only 8 verses, Jesus presents himself for baptism, fully grown. In fact by then he is probably 30 years old. Mark gives us no information about Jesus’s birth or his early life.

Matthew on the other hand is more concerned to establish Jesus’s lineage – descended from David and Abraham. His first 17 verses contain a list of antecedents back to Abraham himself. Mary and Joseph appear in Matthew, mainly to establish the virgin birth in accordance with Isaiah’s prophecy. Apart from that, there is nothing before the arrival of the Magi.

John’s gospel starts with creation – but the first appearance of Jesus is once again at his baptism. So we rely almost solely on Luke for the infancy narrative. But Luke is a careful, well educated man – who did his research, drew together all the sources he could find, and produced an orderly account (as he put it) adding to the existing sources and providing the basis for a proper understanding of Jesus’s ministry.

Chapter 1 starts with Luke’s method and objectives, then he goes on to relate in order the events surrounding the births of John the Baptist and Jesus himself. Throughout his gospel, Luke is keen to set the events of God’s salvation through Jesus within the context of secular history. So we hear about the decree of Emperor Augustus, and the census during the governorship of Quirinius. This places Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem rather than Nazareth where Joseph lived and worked.

Have you ever paused to consider why the shepherds have such a prominent role? Shepherds are poor, outcast and mistrusted. They are society’s outsiders. So they fit well within Luke’s story which is all about the inclusion of those whom society excluded.

After the shepherds comes a long list of people. Tax collectors – cheats and collaborators with the occupying forces. Sinners. Women – whose place in society and religion was almost invisible. Lepers. The poor and marginalised. And ultimately, us – the Gentiles. So it’s right that Luke concentrates on the angels’ announcement to the shepherds, whilst Matthew features the Magi – rich, privileged sages travelling from the east bearing valuable gifts.

Likewise, Jesus was not born in a palace, but arrived as an outcast to a puzzled teenage mother, out of wedlock, in the most backward part of Judaea, itself a troublesome and destitute region of Palestine.

All of this establishes the graciousness of God’s redemptive action in Christ. And by setting the birth of Christ in the context of all that is to come, leading right up to the most ignominious execution reserved from runaway slaves and those guilty of insurrection, we focus not on the baby, the manger, and the angels, but on Jesus the man and God incarnate.

This is what Christmas is really all about. Not presents, over indulgence, family rows, travel delays, happy holidays, or antacid tablets. Not even the baby in a manger, Christingle, wondering children, carols on the green, or choral lullabies. But God’s gracious redemption, coming to the world as an outcast, speaking to those on the margins of society, rejected by almost everyone, and sacrificed to political expediency by his own people.

This should have been the end, but the real miracle is that despite his few uneducated disciples and constant persecution the gospel survived. Yet in our benign tolerance of all faiths Christianity faces its biggest threat – indifference.

Indifference, fed by commercialism and political correctness where the events of Christmas Day share the limelight in our schools with Divali, Hanukah, Eid and the Midwinter Celebration as Bradford Council has this year renamed it.

The church, of course, does its best to get the simple message over to children. That God is love. That Christmas is about giving not receiving. That behind the story of the nativity is atonement through an incarnate God. So to counter indifference, political correctness and commercialism we have to become modern day John the Baptists who point out Christ as Messiah. Modern day Marys who bring Christ to the world in the way we live our lives. Modern day angels and shepherds who retain that wonder for the Christmas message and interpret it to an increasingly secular world.

So this Christmas, let our instincts be as the shepherds long ago: Come, let us go and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about . Or like Mary who treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Midnight Mass

Reading Isaiah 52

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains
       are the feet of those who bring good news,
       who proclaim peace,
       who bring good tidings,
       who proclaim salvation,
       who say to Zion,
       "Your God reigns!"

⁸ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
       together they shout for joy.
       When the LORD returns to Zion,
       they will see it with their own eyes.

⁹ Burst into songs of joy together,
       you ruins of Jerusalem,
       for the LORD has comforted his people,
       he has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰ The LORD will lay bare his holy arm
       in the sight of all the nations,
       and all the ends of the earth will see
       the salvation of our God.

Gospel John 1

The Word Became Flesh

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Prayers

Father, [in this holy night] your Son our Saviour
was born as a child among us.
Renew your Church as the Body of Christ.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] there was no room for your Son
in the inn.
Protect with your love those who have no home
and all who live in poverty.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] Mary, in the pain of labour,
brought your Son to birth.
Hold in your hand [… and] all who are in pain or distress.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] your Christ came
as a light shining in the darkness.
Bring comfort to [... and] all who suffer
in the sadness of our world.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] the angels sang
‘Peace to God’s people on earth’.
Strengthen those who work for peace and justice
in [… and in] all the world.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] shepherds in the field heard
good tidings of joy.
Give us grace to preach the gospel of Christ’s redemption.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] heaven is come down to earth,
and earth is raised to heaven.
Keep in safety [… and] all those who have
passed through death in the hope of heaven.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] Christians the world over
celebrate his birth.
Open our hearts that he may be born in us today.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

Father,
[in this holy night] angels and shepherds worshipped at
the manger throne.
Receive the worship we offer in fellowship with Mary,
Joseph and the saints
through him who is your Word made flesh,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Sermon

Some preachers at Christmas think that faced with such a wonderful gospel reading they can in one stupendous sermon make all things plain, awaken all our imaginations, and provide the answers to life, the universe and everything. They think they can bat out the entire innings and win the game single handed. Me? – my ambitions are more restrained. A couple of fours and a few well judged singles would suffice.

So for my first four I’ll take the first verse, and for my last, the last. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God.

The concept of Logos was already well known in the world of Greek philosophy. Here John applies it to Christ. We can only begin to comprehend what this is all about – scholars continue to debate the source and meaning of Logos and why and how it was used by John. But I will focus on three aspects tonight: was – was with- was.

Jesus the Logos was. At the beginning. He existed.
Jesus the Logos was with God. He had a relationship with God.
Jesus the Logos was. He was God. That was his identity.

Pretty dramatic stuff – and let’s reflect on these claims by John the Evangelist before we get overtaken by Luke’s baby tucked up in his crib and the nativity scene, or the overindulgence and commercialisation of the long-forgotten Christian festival.

Existence. Relationship. Identity. He was. He was with. He was.

The claims made by John are astounding. Jesus, he says, was the Word of God. Jesus existed before creation, and was with God from the beginning. Not only did he have a relationship with God, which we now call the Trinity – but Jesus was no less than God himself. The claims have lost nothing of their drama and impact 1,900 years after they were first written down. No wonder there have been so-called heresies, asserting Jesus was Man who became divine during his earthly lifetime. Or that he was Man divinely inspired and adopted by God. Or that he was unbegotten – a being created by God and not of one being with the Father as we say in the creeds.

But we are a Trinitarian church. We believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – together in relationship but of one being – inseparable – and it is in this light that we must try and understand the first verse of John’s gospel.

My second four is in the last verse. What happened to the Logos? The Word became flesh. The Word made his dwelling among us. Past tense, not present. A fleshly Logos, no longer here.

Imagine, if you will, a nomad’s tent. This is the Logos – he pitched his tent among us. During his incarnation, people passed in and out of the tent. His words and actions were played out in that tent. Now the tent has been struck. It is no longer here, but we have a record of what was said and done, and we can see the marks on the ground where the tent once was.

John goes onto say We have seen his glory...full of grace and truth. That was what people saw in the tent, but the word ‘saw’ here has a deeper meaning. They did not just see Jesus the Logos physically with their own eyes. They perceived. They saw with their mind’s eye and not just with the eyes in their heads.

That’s the secondary meaning of ‘we have seen his glory.’ They saw the identity of the One who had taken up residence among them. They perceived who he was. Beyond mere visual identification. They were more than eye witnesses.

In the same way, our challenge this Christmas is to look beyond the baby in the manger. Beyond the stuffing and the commercialisation. Beyond even the carols and the liturgy. And by doing so, we can perceive his identity, Jesus the Logos for ourselves. We can know who this One is. We can enter this relationship with him, and not just observe from afar.

So tomorrow, 14 minutes after getting up, 15 minutes before you have breakfast, and 2 hours before the first family row – as you pick up your first gift from under the tree – stop and reflect on the true gift to us of Christmas.

The true gift of Christmas is not some neatly wrapped present from a loved one. Nor some neatly worded sermon. Nor even some neatly laid out nativity scene.

The true gift is what is behind them. Jesus the Logos – who was, was with, and is God. The one who pitched his tent among us, full of grace and truth. The One who interacts with us throughout the year, and not just during the season of Christmas.

So after the wrapping paper is recycled, the credit card paid off, the New Year resolutions made and broken, and Christmas forgotten until 2010 – let’s still make time to reflect on Jesus the Word, and try to make sense for ourselves of that mystery that is the Logos, of one being with God the Father, in the relationship of the Trinity – with Jesus the incarnate, the Word made flesh, who pitched his tent for a while among us – no longer here, but with us for all time. Amen

Christmas Day 8.30 am Holy Communion

Reading Isaiah 62.6-12

I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
they will never be silent day or night.
You who call on the LORD,
give yourselves no rest,
and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem
and makes her the praise of the earth.
The LORD has sworn by his right hand
and by his mighty arm:
“Never again will I give your grain
as food for your enemies,
and never again will foreigners drink the new wine
for which you have toiled;
but those who harvest it will eat it
and praise the LORD,
and those who gather the grapes will drink it
in the courts of my sanctuary.”
Pass through, pass through the gates!
Prepare the way for the people.
Build up, build up the highway!
Remove the stones.
Raise a banner for the nations.
The LORD has made proclamation
to the ends of the earth:
“Say to the Daughter of Zion,
‘See, your Saviour comes!
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.’”
They will be called the Holy People,
the Redeemed of the LORD;
and you will be called Sought After,
the City No Longer Deserted.

Gospel Luke 2.1-14(15-20)

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

There were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Prayers

Christ, born in a stable,
give courage to all who are homeless:
Jesus, Saviour,
hear our prayer.

Christ, for whom the angels sang,
give the song of the kingdom to all who weep:
Jesus, Saviour,
hear our prayer.

Christ, worshipped by the shepherds,
give peace on earth to all who are oppressed:
Jesus, Saviour,
hear our prayer.

Christ, before whom the wise men knelt,
give humility and wisdom to all who govern:
Jesus, Saviour,
hear our prayer.

Christ, whose radiance filled a lowly manger,
give the glory of your resurrection to all who rest in you:
Jesus, Saviour,
hear our prayer.

Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of the Father,
full of the Spirit,
hear our prayer,
receive our praises,
fill our lives.
Amen.

Sermon

Christmas Day. What can I say that has not already been said many times? The words of Luke 2 are so familiar we almost know them off by heart.

You may wonder why we always seem to read Luke’s gospel at Christmas? The reason is simple. Although Luke drew heavily on Mark’s account when writing his gospel, as indeed did Matthew – Mark has no infancy narrative. He dives straight in with the proclamation of John the Baptist. After only 8 verses, Jesus presents himself for baptism, fully grown. In fact by then he is probably 30 years old. Mark gives us no information about Jesus’s birth or his early life.

Matthew on the other hand is more concerned to establish Jesus’s lineage – descended from David and Abraham. His first 17 verses contain a list of antecedents back to Abraham himself. Mary and Joseph appear in Matthew, mainly to establish the virgin birth in accordance with Isaiah’s prophecy. Apart from that, there is nothing before the arrival of the Magi.

John’s gospel starts with creation – but the first appearance of Jesus is once again at his baptism. So we rely almost solely on Luke for the infancy narrative. But Luke is a careful, well educated man – who did his research, drew together all the sources he could find, and produced an orderly account (as he put it) adding to the existing sources and providing the basis for a proper understanding of Jesus’s ministry.

Chapter 1 starts with Luke’s method and objectives, then he goes on to relate in order the events surrounding the births of John the Baptist and Jesus himself. Throughout his gospel, Luke is keen to set the events of God’s salvation through Jesus within the context of secular history. So we hear about the decree of Emperor Augustus, and the census during the governorship of Quirinius. This places Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem rather than Nazareth where Joseph lived and worked.

Have you ever paused to consider why the shepherds have such a prominent role? Shepherds are poor, outcast and mistrusted. They are society’s outsiders. So they fit well within Luke’s story which is all about the inclusion of those whom society excluded.

After the shepherds comes a long list of people. Tax collectors – cheats and collaborators with the occupying forces. Sinners. Women – whose place in society and religion was almost invisible. Lepers. The poor and marginalised. And ultimately, us – the Gentiles. So it’s right that Luke concentrates on the angels’ announcement to the shepherds, whilst Matthew features the Magi – rich, privileged sages travelling from the east bearing valuable gifts.

Likewise, Jesus was not born in a palace, but arrived as an outcast to a puzzled teenage mother, out of wedlock, in the most backward part of Judaea, itself a troublesome and destitute region of Palestine.

All of this establishes the graciousness of God’s redemptive action in Christ. And by setting the birth of Christ in the context of all that is to come, leading right up to the most ignominious execution reserved from runaway slaves and those guilty of insurrection, we focus not on the baby, the manger, and the angels, but on Jesus the man and God incarnate.

This is what Christmas is really all about. Not presents, over indulgence, family rows, travel delays, happy holidays, or antacid tablets. Not even the baby in a manger, Christingle, wondering children, carols on the green, or choral lullabies. But God’s gracious redemption, coming to the world as an outcast, speaking to those on the margins of society, rejected by almost everyone, and sacrificed to political expediency by his own people.

This should have been the end, but the real miracle is that despite his few uneducated disciples and constant persecution the gospel survived. Yet in our benign tolerance of all faiths Christianity faces its biggest threat – indifference.

Indifference, fed by commercialism and political correctness where the events of Christmas Day share the limelight in our schools with Divali, Hanukah, Eid and the Midwinter Celebration as Bradford Council has this year renamed it.

The church, of course, does its best to get the simple message over to children. That God is love. That Christmas is about giving not receiving. That behind the story of the nativity is atonement through an incarnate God. So to counter indifference, political correctness and commercialism we have to become modern day John the Baptists who point out Christ as Messiah. Modern day Marys who bring Christ to the world in the way we live our lives. Modern day angels and shepherds who retain that wonder for the Christmas message and interpret it to an increasingly secular world.

So this Christmas, let our instincts be as the shepherds long ago: Come, let us go and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about . Or like Mary who treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Church Mice

Not all the church mice were present for the last meeting of the year on Thursday 17 December. Some couldn’t make it today, but here’s a Christmas photo.

Our next meeting is on Thursday 7 January 2010. Mums, dads and carers of babies and toddlers are all welcome. We sing, play, listen to stories, socialise and enjoy ourselves.

Why not join us in 2010?

Manor House Quartet

Our sell-out concert on Friday night was a great success, and hugely enjoyed by all who attended, judging by the rapturous applause.

The repertoire was baroque with a Christmas influence, plus more modern pieces. Many were cunningly arranged by Vaughan Jones (Violin) after some late-night composing sessions.

The final count was £567 received by Cherish Your Church.

A great many people helped achieve this fine result – too many to thank by name. Well done everyone for all your hard work, and for enabling us to revel in the music whilst at the same time contributing to a good cause.

Robert

Link to Vaughan's Manor House Music blog.

Vaughan’s description of the music:

Our brief was to play music on the themes of Winter and Christmas so I had lots of arranging to do, particularly of Christmas carols (since published arrangements for string quartet are often quite basic and lacking in detail). In the end, we carefully put together a programme to include a mixture of well loved carols with seasonal favourites such as the ‘Christmas Concerto’ by Corelli, ‘Winter’ by Vivaldi, some of my own arrangements of pieces from Handel’s ’Messiah’, popular pieces from the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky, In the Bleak Midwinter by Holst and of course ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ by J.S Bach.

John the Baptist

Thursday 10 December 2009

 

Gospel Matthew 11: 16 – 19

¹¹ Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. ¹² From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, ^[d] and violent people have been raiding it. ¹³ For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. ¹⁴ And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. ¹⁵ Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Sermon

• Chapters 11 and 12 headed The Response of Israel.
• Recounts failure of this generation to accept God’s messengers
• And failure to accept Messiah
• Rejection punctuated by signs of hope – not all is bleak
• Last messenger is John the Baptist
• In prison – hears what Jesus is doing – sends disciples
• Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?
• Jesus replies, telling disciples to say to John what they have seen
• Blind see
• Lame walk
• Lepers cleansed
• Deaf hear
• Dead raised
• Poor receive good news
• These are signs of Kingdom
• Surprising questions – after John recognised Jesus in chapter 3
• At baptism – I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?
• One will come after me who will baptize with Holy Spirit
• This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased
• Who is John?
• One of messengers – a prophet?
• Yes – and more than a prophet
• See I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.
• No one has arisen greater than John the Baptist
• He is Elijah
• But the response of this generation both to John and Jesus himself is lacking
• We played the flute for you – but you did not dance
• In Advent – first week focuses on particular groups
• First week – Patriarchs like Abraham – our father in faith
• Second week – Prophets – those who foretold coming of Messiah
• Third week – John the Baptist – who proclaimed Jesus at Lamb of God
• Fourth week – Mary whose humility and openness to God made possible the incarnation
• This is where John the Baptist fits in the Advent season
• As we observe a holy Advent – we take our place – together with the forerunners of the Hebrew scriptures – in preparing ourselves and the world for the coming of the Messiah at Christmas. Amen.

“A Christmas Carol”

Galaxies of stars collide
Within this baby's gentle smile,
The universe it comprehends,
All propositions reconcile.

All languages articulate,
Upon this tiny wordless tongue
No ciphers, arcane alphabets,
Nor future musics lie unsung.

Empires crumble into dust,
Within this feeble childish grip
Powers and potentates deflate,
All world ambitions earthward slip.

Behold the universe a child,
The nth to nth, the all of all,
Physics turned upon its head,
The cosmos in an ass's stall.

Computer, fiddle, astrolabe
He's mastered in an eyelid's blink,
All centuries to come foreseen,
Past ages into moments shrink,

All possibilities subsumed,
All worlds explored, all hearts beguiled,
So do not with a trivial thought
Deride this terrifying child.

©  Chris Shepheard

The Wise and Foolish Builders

Reading Isaiah 26

A Song of Praise

¹ In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
       We have a strong city;
       God makes salvation
       its walls and ramparts.

² Open the gates
       that the righteous nation may enter,
       the nation that keeps faith.

³ You will keep in perfect peace
       those whose minds are steadfast,
       because they trust in you.

⁴ Trust in the LORD forever,
       for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

⁵ He humbles those who dwell on high,
       he lays the lofty city low;
       he levels it to the ground
       and casts it down to the dust.

⁶ Feet trample it down—
       the feet of the oppressed,
       the footsteps of the poor.

Gospel Matthew 7

The Wise and Foolish Builders

²¹ "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.   ²⁴ "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

Sermon

The Sermon on the Mount extends all the way from chapters 5 to 7. Early in Matthew, Jesus is introduced. There are the birth narratives. The magi follow the star bringing symbolic gifts. Jesus is baptized by John and is tempted in the wilderness. Then he calls his first disciples and starts his ministry in Galilee.

The Sermon on the Mount contains a big chunk of Jesus’s teaching, beginning with the Beatitudes. The wise and foolish builders come toward the end of the Sermon in a passage headed A series of Warnings. After that, the sermon ends and Jesus acts. So first he teaches – then he acts, and he acts by healing many people.

What then are these warnings about? As we said last week when we read about the destruction of Jerusalem, these warnings are about the end of time, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God in all its fullness.

There’s no shades of grey in these warnings. Only black and white. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road easy that leads to destruction. There’s no meandering in the woods between two paths. Only the wide and the narrow. Black and white.

There’s sheep and wolves. No hybrids. Good trees and bad ones. Good fruit and bad. You will know people’s character by their fruits, by the way they behave. Good trees cannot bear bad fruit, and bad trees cannot bear good fruit.

Everyone who hears all these words, Jesus adds, are like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. The elements did their best to destroy that house, but it stood against gales and floods, because it was founded on rock and not shifting sands.

The foolish man built his house on the sand. Why did he do that? Because he was lazy. Building a house on rock meant carting materials up a hill. Hard work. Building a house by a river is so much more pleasant. So much easier. Flatter. Even the view is better. But there’s no rock in a flood plain, and eventually the whole structure is washed away.

The parable is an easy one to interpret. We all know what it means. The rock is Jesus Christ himself. Faith in him. The winds and floods are the vicissitudes of our lives. The calamities and afflictions shake our faith, and if it is not founded on the rock it will be shaken and fall.

Those who heard the Sermon on the Mount will have been familiar with God’s judgement being visited on people, as they saw it, through the natural world. Noah’s flood. The Apocalypse as I mentioned last week is often seen as a terrible tempest. So the message of the wise and foolish builders was clear to them, and as builders themselves they would be only too aware of the need for proper construction.

For us, the message is equally stark. There are only two states: obedience and disobedience. Salvation and destruction. And whilst our faith is rightly grounded on love and we believe in a loving Father God, these warnings are in scripture for a purpose, and we would do well to heed them and not allow them to be too quickly dismissed or passed over.

Apocalypse Now

Thursday 26 November Holy Communion St Giles

First Reading Daniel 6: 12 – end

¹² So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: "Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human being except to you, Your Majesty, would be thrown into the lions' den?"
       The king answered, "The decree stands—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed."

¹³ Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day." ¹⁴ When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.

¹⁵ Then the men went as a group to King Darius and said to him, "Remember, Your Majesty, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed."

¹⁶ So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!"

¹⁷ A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. ¹⁸ Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.

¹⁹ At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions' den. ²⁰ When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"

²¹ Daniel answered, "May the king live forever! ²² My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty."

²³ The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

²⁴ At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions' den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

²⁵ Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth:
       "May you prosper greatly!

²⁶ "I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel.
       "For he is the living God
       and he endures forever;
       his kingdom will not be destroyed,
       his dominion will never end.

²⁷ He rescues and he saves;
       he performs signs and wonders
       in the heavens and on the earth.
       He has rescued Daniel
       from the power of the lions."

²⁸ So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Gospel Luke 21: 20 – 28

²⁰ "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. ²¹ Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. ²² For this is the time of punishment in fulfilment of all that has been written. ²³ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. ²⁴ They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

²⁵ "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. ²⁶ People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. ²⁷ At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

Sermon

Luke 21 is called Apocalyptic Discourse. All 3 synoptic gospels present this extended discourse – conclusion to Jesus’s ministry – before passion narrative.

Apocalypse = revelation – lifting of veil. Nowadays refers to end of time – like Revelation at end of NT.

Jesus’s teachings are about the Kingdom. The Kingdom will bring hostility, as we read two weeks ago. Jesus’s passion and resurrection act as precursor to Apocalypse. After Jesus has gone, the disciples face immediate hostility as thye struggle to maintain their faith without him present but with guidance of Holy Spirit instead.

The discourse takes place appropriately in the Temple. Focuses on destruction of the Temple – both physically and as necessary event at end of age. The two events are separate – the Romans destroyed the Temple, but thatv was not the end of the age, merely a sign of what is to come.

So Luke says ‘when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know its desolation is near.’ By the time Luke writes his gospel, the Temple will probably have been destroyed, so the words of Jesus in retrospect look like a prophecy that the readers will know has already been fulfilled.

So they will concentrate all the more on the other signs – those that herald the end of time or Apocalypse. These signs include cosmic disasters that climax in the Son of Man returning on a cloud – a direct quotation from Daniel 7, the chapter after today’s OT reading. This is a kind of ascension in reverse.

Like the early church, Luke expected the imminent return of Christ, but they were doomed to disappointment. For us, 2,000 years later, what expectation do we have? Not imminent probably, but our time is not God’s time. Still the message that Luke is giving is the same: only the time is different. Luke still looked for the powerful intervention of God in the world, but he expected it soon.

Our confidence is in the same powerful intervention, but not imminently. The Kingdom of God is with us in one sense already, however, and this is what should control our lives. We should still be prepared for the end of time, which will come like a thief in the night – and so our behaviour should be the same as those in the early church who had a different expectation.

Stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

Christ the King

First Reading Daniel 7.9-10,13-14

Daniel said: “As I looked,
thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened.

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

Gospel John 18.33-37

Pilate went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Sermon

Christ the King is the title given to Jesus in many passages of scripture. Many denominations, including Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians and some Methodists and Lutherans observe the feast of Christ the King on the last day of the church year. Sunday before Advent.

Surely, you may say, Jesus did not call himself a King? Jesus did not describe himself as a King in the conventional sense. Nor did he even want to be called Messiah. Both of these titles carried overtones of worldly power and might. To claim kingship or even to say he was the Messiah would invite misunderstanding on the part of those who listened to his words.

Still, in the exchange with Pilate, Jesus admitted to being a king of sorts. A king not of this world. When challenged by Pilate to say what kind of king he was, Jesus answered:

“You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”

In reply, Pilate asked the famous question: “What is truth?” - a question we will all spend our lives trying to answer.

In order to try and address this particular question, we have to jump back from chapter 18 to the beginning of John’s gospel.

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus’s kingship is revealed by John as God in human flesh. He is the Word. The Word is God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Throughout John’s gospel, Jesus’s kingship is veiled. Andrew finds Jesus, then goes to get his brother Simon. We have found the Messiah he says.

Jesus calls Philip who finds Nathaniel.

⁴⁹ Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel."

In Matthew, the wise men were seeking Jesus the king. "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him."

Jesus himself preferred another title. Son of Man. You can see where it came from in today’s reading from Daniel.

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

So the King Jesus claims to be is very far from worldly sovereignty. It is all about truth. Revealing the truth to human beings. This is the explanation Jesus gives to Pilate, and Pilate does not question it, any more than he believes Jesus is guilty of the crimes brought against him. In fact, Pilate even orders a sign for the cross. It read JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. John’s gospel adds:

²⁰Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. ²¹The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."

²²Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

So Pilate seems to accept that Jesus somehow has a kingship of a kind, but he gets no answer to his question “What is Truth?” Or does he?

If Pilate affirms Jesus’s kingship so clearly, does he see, as we do, that Jesus is Truth? Does he perceive that this prisoner is in himself the answer to that eternal question we all spend our lives trying to answer? The person of Jesus, standing in front of him accused of sedition embodies the Truth. Truth is the One on trial. Truth is the Word made flesh. And the Word made flesh is indeed Christ the King – the true witness and proclamation of John the Evangelist today, the feast of Christ the King on the Sunday next before Advent.

But Jesus’s insistence on calling himself Son of Man (literally ‘one like a human being’) also reveals to us God. Not only Jesus himself – God incarnate – but God’s place in an increasingly chaotic world. In Daniel’s vision, the Son of Man comes to deliver the people from the threats that overwhelm them. God is depicted as King, on a throne but the delivered looks like a human being, the Son of Man.

So God is in the midst of all this chaos, both as King and as a human deliverer. This shows God is not far away from the everyday events of life, but is moving, acting and intervening in the real life struggles of believers, however much it may sometimes seem that he has taken a back seat or is just an observer.

As one American theologian[1] has written:

Particularly as we are entering this season of Advent we take heart in the image of Christ our King who was born in the shadow of the empire; who was threatened and eventually persecuted and killed by the empire; but who has risen from the dead, reigning on high. It is this advent hope in the already and the not yet of our salvation that gives us the strength to endure.

Amen

---

[1] Juliana Claassens

Associate Professor of Old Testament
Wesley Theological Seminary
Richmond, VA

Unity – Thursday 5 November

Reading Romans 14

The Weak and the Strong

¹ Accept those whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ² One person's faith allows them to eat everything, but another person, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted that person. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master they stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

⁵ Some consider one day more sacred than another; others consider every day alike. Everyone should be fully convinced in their own mind. ⁶ Those who regard one day as special do so to the Lord. Those who eat meat do so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and those who abstain do so to the Lord and give thanks to God. ⁷ For we do not live to ourselves alone and we do not die to ourselves alone. ⁸ If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹ For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰ You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat your brother or sister with contempt? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. ¹¹ It is written:
       " 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
       'every knee will bow before me;
       every tongue will confess to God.' "

¹² So then, we will all give an account of ourselves to God.

Gospel Luke 15

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

¹ Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

The Parable of the Lost Coin

⁸ "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Sermon

We continue reading Romans.

Sometimes I feel Paul does not talk a lot of sense. Wonderful though he was, and although through his ministry and bravery he single-handedly spread the gospel right round the Roman world, he was human and fallible. His attitude towards women in the church I find it hard to take, just as much as I do the attitude of those of my colleagues who are members of Forward in Faith.

This time, though, Paul talks sense. Would that the Christian church even today could heed his advice. This chapter and the next is about pursuing what makes for peace and mutual edification.

Paul begins this section with an exhortation to Christian unity. He was embroiled in controversy that had broken out in the Corinthian church, where a dispute arose as to whether or not it was OK to eat food that had been offered to pagan idols.

Who cares? He said (more or less). What difference does it make? We are no worse off if we abstain from eating, and no better off if we eat. Even so, he went on, it’s better not to encourage others to go against their convictions. It’s better for the strong not to tell the weaker members how to behave, if that means going against their consciences.

Each of us stands or falls, not by the judgement and good standing of our fellow women and men, but through the judgement of God alone. Live towards God through faith: live towards others with consideration.

Recognising individual differences and understanding them, even if we don’t agree with them, is the road to unity. Unity does not mean we all agree on everything. Far from it. What is means is we are prepared to live in love with each other without judging them.

The Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but walking together in tolerance and love.

Why can’t the church follow this sensible advice? Why do people hold such strong views about seemingly small details of faith or worship that they are prepared to take up arms against those who don’t agree? Why in this modern age do we still fight over whether women can be made bishops, or even be ordained priest in the first place? Why do we judge each other and treat our fellow Christians with contempt?

You tell me. I have no idea. What I do know is that if people read more of these words of St Paul and less of some of the others, we might just get closer to the ideal. As it says in Philippians 2:

¹ If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,

² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

⁴ Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

⁵ Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus

All Souls 2 November 2009 at 8.00pm

Reading Wisdom 3:1-9 (TNIV)

The Destiny of the Righteous

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment will ever touch them.
²In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,
and their departure was thought to be a disaster,
³and their going from us to be their destruction;
but they are at peace.
⁴For though in the sight of others they were punished,
their hope is full of immortality.
⁵Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,
because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;
⁶like gold in the furnace he tried them,
and like a sacrificial burnt-offering he accepted them.
⁷In the time of their visitation they will shine forth,
and will run like sparks through the stubble.
⁸They will govern nations and rule over peoples,
and the Lord will reign over them forever.
⁹Those who trust in him will understand truth,
and the faithful will abide with him in love,
because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones,
and he watches over his elect.^*

Gospel John 11: 17 – 27 (TNIV)

Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus

¹⁷ On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

²¹ "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."

²³ Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

²⁴ Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

²⁵ Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶ and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

²⁷ "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

Sermon

All Saints and All Souls – for many years they were joined together – but in 1980 they were split with introduction of a new service book in C of E.

They are very similar in intent, but in the way we celebrate them there are differences.

All Saints – we celebrate the saints. Special people set aside an example to us in the way they lived and died. They may be called Saint, or may not. They may be ordinary people who were special to us – who brought us up in the faith of Christ – examples to us in our formative years – youth leaders, grandparents, parents, friends.

In the early church – no word for ‘Christian’ – Paul wrote letters to ‘the saints in church at Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi ....’ So the saints we commemorated yesterday, and the souls we remember today may be the same people in many cases.

All Souls – ‘commemoration of faithful departed.’ People dear to us as individuals. These may not be particularly saintly folk. They are important to us – and we believe have gone to be with God. We see them no longer – but our hope is to be reunited with them in fullness of time.

Tonight we are not praying for the souls of those who have departed. We are remembering them, and thanking God for their lives and all they meant to us. We are not praying for them because they are already with God. But we are praying for ourselves and each other as we commemorate the lives of our loved ones who have died.

Tonight we bring a mixture of emotions to this service, and we have space to reflect on those feelings. Maybe some are negative ones. Not all our memories will be good ones, although naturally we will try and concentrate on the good times and all they meant to us.

I say ‘we’ because I myself conducted the funerals of both of my parents in the last 5 years. In fact, my father’s funeral was the first one I ever took.

There may be feelings of regret. Loneliness. Missed opportunities to say what we felt. Remorse. Guilt perhaps. Even anger. Tonight we have space to think over these feelings, and perhaps leave some of them behind here – at the foot of the cross – knowing that God loves us all as he has assured us through the words of Jesus Christ, and we can consign them to his tender care.

The gospel readings for both All Saints and All Souls this year follow on from each other. Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus. His sisters were Mary and Martha. Lazarus fell dangerously sick, and knowing their friend Jesus had been healing people they sent for him.

Jesus delayed. By the time he arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb for 4 days. Martha expressed some of those feelings of regret and maybe even anger. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died” were her first words when Jesus eventually arrived. Jesus assures her she will see her brother again one day. He will rise again. She knows that already.

Later on, Jesus visits the tomb of Lazarus and gives instructions for the stone sealing the entrance to the cave where he is buried to be removed. He calls to Lazarus who is restored to life and walks out.

Like many incidents in the gospels, this one works for us at many levels.

Firstly it is an actual event that is being reported. The raising of Lazarus from the dead.

Secondly, there is the message. Jesus is demonstrating God’s power over death. He says to Martha:

"I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶ and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

“Yes, Lord, I believe” she replies – even before witnessing the miracle of her brother’s call from the tomb.

Thirdly, before opening the cave everyone protests. It is a hot country. People are buried quickly. The body had been in the cave 4 days, and there would be a bad odour.

This represents for us all our negative feelings. The bad odour of our remorse, resentment, perhaps even guilt and anger. In the narrative, Jesus is able to confront all that, and the result is another empty tomb – like his own after the crucifixion – by which he shows God has power over death. What seems to us a terrible finality is not the end, because Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

And Jesus asks us the same question as he asked Martha. “Do you believe?” She answered at once. Martha had the benefit of her Lord right in front of her. We don’t have that luxury, but Jesus still asks us the same question. And by answering in the affirmative, we can be assured of God’s love, atonement and redemption, through which we can leave whatever negative feelings remain with us,` at the foot of his cross. Amen

All Saints

1 November 2009

Gospel John 11.32-44

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Sermon

Tomorrow we observe All Souls. The Common Worship service is called Commemoration of Faithful Departed. Today is All Saints. Last year we observed All Saints and All Souls together. For many years, in the church year both were observed together, but from 1980 with the ASB they were once again separated.

The two are similar but not the same. Tomorrow we remember all those loved ones who have died. We express our hope that we will one day be reunited with them. We are not praying for them – they are in the keeping of a loving God – but we pray for ourselves and each other.

The saints are special people who have set an example for us to follow by the way they lived their lives, and perhaps also by the way they died. They may be well-known figures who are beatified – called by the name of Saint – or they may be more ordinary folks who have helped us in our journey of faith, whether parents, leaders, friends, or spiritual advisers. Whatever their role, it was meaningful and important to us, and we look back on their lives and what they meant to us in our formative years with gratitude and thanks.

Before the word ‘Christian’ came into common use, members of the early church were known as saints. In his letter to the Romans, for example, Paul writes to those who are loved by God and called to be saints. He refers to the church in Corinth as the congregation of the saints. Ephesians begins with the words Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus. Christians in the churches of Colossae and Philippi are called by the same name.

Today as we celebrate All Saints, we are thinking not only of those special people whose examples we can follow, but also you and me. The saints of Cheddington and Mentmore.

When thinking about what to say today, I wondered why this particular reading from the gospel of John had been chosen. What does it have to do with the saints?

Beginning with the turning of water into wine in chapter 2 John’s gospel is constructed around a series of signs performed by Jesus. The raising of Lazarus marks a turning point . Why? Because the miracle demonstrates Jesus has power even over death, and death is the most frightening aspect of our life. It can seem so final. It is the great unknown. Death robs us of our very existence in this world.

Only God has power over death, so by raising Lazarus, Jesus is showing his divine nature. At the same time, this very act angers the religious leaders. From this point, they plot to kill him ‘for the sake of the whole nation.’

The bystanders and even Martha herself ask why Jesus could not have healed Lazarus. Why did Jesus delay so long before coming to him? For them, like us, the fact that Lazarus did actually die and was buried 4 days demands from us a shift in faith. A shift from believing in Jesus as a healer to believing in him as Son of God.

Before this, no one had any conception of Christ as ‘the resurrection and the life’ – someone who had power over life and death.

At the same time, this event shows Jesus at his most human. He is distressed at Martha’s grief. He weeps himself – it’s the shortest verse in the Bible. He is ‘deeply moved and troubled’ – the Greek words imply anger.

What is Jesus angry about? Surely not their lack of faith. Who could have expected Jesus to bring Lazarus back to life after 4 days in the tomb? Was he angry at the power death has over us all, including Lazarus of course? If so, Jesus demonstrates that the power of death is not final, using only 3 words: “Lazarus come out.” He shows his power over what we all fear most.

This is why this single incident appears in the lectionary for All Saints Day. Until now, death has been the enemy. Hand in hand with death is sin, brokenness, despair, and division. ‘Why did he die so soon?’ ‘Why did she linger in pain so long?’ These are the sort of questions we hear often at funerals.

The message of All Saints is a partial answer. Death is no longer the enemy it was. Death is no longer only a cause for grief, but restores us to the image of the God who created us.

Death remains the greatest threat to our imagination, purpose and value. The fight is not over but the war has been won.

Death is still a fearsome frontier, but for some people, the constant march of medical science can spare us to live a bit longer and to witness to our faith in this world for a while yet. I myself am a case in point, who a few years ago might not still be alive but for the developing skill of a surgeon.

Lazarus actually hosts a meal in chapter 12, but like him however long we live we still face our own mortality in the end. Just as Jesus called Lazarus back with those 3 words, so God calls us to be with him in his nearer presence. Through our own baptism, when we die to sin and are resurrected with Christ, so through faith we are called by Jesus out of the tomb of sin and death, and like Lazarus we are untied from the bonds that held us captive to serve and witness to the Lord who has saved us from the dead.

Amen

Thursday 29 October 2009

Reading Romans 8: 31 – end

31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel Luke 13: 31 – end

At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”

He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day – for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Sermon

Last week we read a passage from the mid part of the journey to Jerusalem. It came from Luke 12. Jesus talked about bringing division and strife to families rather than peace.

Today’s gospel is from Luke 13. It is the climax of the first half of the journey. It is apt that the passage offers a challenge to Jerusalem that actually prefigures the events of Palm Sunday.

The Pharisees warn Jesus of the danger he is in. Are they being ironic, or friendly? We don’t know. He issues a challenge to Herod the king calling him a fox. That itself is risky given what happened to John the Baptist.

After Palm Sunday comes the trial and crucifixion. Jesus is executed, then there is the evening and the morrow. On the third day the tomb is empty and he has completed the work he came to do.

Likewise in this passage Jesus says “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’”

Luke is here reminding us, his readers, of the significance of the journey to Jerusalem. By exorcisms and healings, Jesus is already sowing the seeds of the Kingdom. This is ‘today and tomorrow.’ Then on the third day he will complete his work.

What completes his work is the cycle of events in Jerusalem. The passion, the resurrection and ascension. Through these events, he is exalted and gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to his people.

Like the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus must suffer and be prepared to die. He says that can be nowhere else than in Jerusalem, where his ministry started and where it will end. That’s where Luke’s gospel starts and ends.

For now, he laments over the city as he will also do when he enters it for the last time. Jerusalem is the holy city, but it will eventually reject him and bring about his death.

But as we read in Romans 8, that is not the end but only the beginning. In this we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. As Paul says:

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bible Sunday at St Marys Mentmore

First Reading Isaiah 55.1-11

The LORD says this:

¹Everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
²Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
³Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
⁴See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
⁵See, you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.

⁶Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
⁷let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
⁹For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Psalm 19.7-14

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; ♦
the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple.

8 The statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart; ♦ the commandment of the Lord is pure and gives light to the eyes.

9 The fear of the Lord is clean and endures for ever; ♦ the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold,
more than much fine gold, ♦ sweeter also than honey, dripping from the honeycomb.

11 By them also is your servant taught ♦
and in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can tell how often they offend? ♦
O cleanse me from my secret faults!

13 Keep your servant also from presumptuous sins
lest they get dominion over me; ♦ so shall I be undefiled, and innocent of great offence.

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, ♦ O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Second Reading 2 Timothy 3.14-4.5

¹⁴Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: ²proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. ³For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. ⁵As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Gospel John 5.36b-47

Jesus said to the Jews: ³⁶‘The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. ³⁷And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, ³⁸and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

³⁹You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. ⁴¹I do not accept glory from human beings. ⁴²But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’

Sermon

Bible. Scripture. Word of God. Holy Writ. Old and New Testament. Authorized version. All words for the Bible.

Today = Bible Sunday. Christianity and Islam both People of the Book. What strikes you when you think of the Bible?

Old language

Readings in church and at school

Impenetrable language

Parables and stories

Genocide, cruelty, a vengeful God – out of step with modern times and even NT

Bible Sunday tells different story, paints different picture

Take today’s readings
This addressed to the Jews:
³⁹You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf.
This to Timothy from Paul:
¹⁴Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

Here are two different attitudes to the Bible.

Jews read the Law and Prophets

By following the law they seek the salvation of their souls

But Jesus says the scriptures testify to him – salvation comes through faith in him and not by anything we do or don’t do

Isaiah liked Scripture to food and drink. It’s water, wine, milk and bread in plenty to those who are hungry and thirsty:
⁶Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
¹⁰For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

These readings direct us to God’s Word – another name for the Bible

But interpreting Scripture is not always clear and understanding what we read is not always straightforward

Some passages are easy enough

Beatitudes

Passages about love, forgiveness, redemption

Others are harder – far more so than some Christians would have us believe

Can we be expected to follow rules laid down for human society 2 – 3,000 years ago?

To do so would give us a peculiar idea of God

A God stuck in the past who refuses to budge?

Surely God does not expect us to be stuck with rules that made sense to our ancestors, and not adapt them to the gospel

God is not a God of the past

God is our contemporary

In reading the Bible, God does not expect us to be a blank canvas on which he can write whatever he likes

No, God engages us in dialogue

Thoughts

Plans

Intentions, arguments, even.

We are made in God’s image

Mentally

And spiritually

The God of the Bible does not dominate

He does not intrude

He prods, suggests, and leads

He speaks in the sound of sheer silence – still, small voice”

The God of the Bible gives and receives

Not a one-way street

Sometimes we give, sometimes receive

How can we get to know this God?

Of course, by hearing his Word, and applying our God-given reason to interpreting what we hear

Maybe by reading, maybe through prayer, maybe through leading – doors opening and closing

Maybe by learning about Jesus, who is God incarnate

In all these, the Bible plays an important part

Buy a new one

TNIV Anglicised - £8 from Amazon - £10 leather

NRSV Anglicised - £6 from Amazon

Read it online

For example, search for the word baptize and you find 50 references

Many about baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist

But here’s a story relevant to today. It’s about an Ethiopian who was reading the Hebrew Scriptures and not understanding what he read. Philip cadged a lift in his chariot, and helped him understand the passage from Isaiah.
³⁴ The Ethiopian asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" ³⁵ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

^{36 -37} As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?" ³⁸ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. Acts 8

So now that’s what we are going to do today – baptising Maddison Emily Bullivant. After the baptism, we will welcome her into membership of the community of faith. We will present her with a candle, symbolising the light of Christ in her life. Finally we will present her with her first Bible, in the hope it will be read to her. Then when she is of age, she will have the knowledge and understanding to make an informed decision of her own.