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.