Prayer–or the Golden Rule?

Midweek Communion at St Giles – St David’s Day

Reading Isaiah 55

⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found;
   call on him while he is near.
⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way
   and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
   and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
   neither are your ways my ways,”
            declares the LORD.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
   so are my ways higher than your ways
   and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 

Gospel Matthew 7

Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory.
The Lord is a great God, O that today you would listen to his voice.
Harden not your hearts.
All Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

 

Sermon

Listening to gospel reading – might have concluded it is about prayer. One of those troubling gospel readings about faith and intercession. “Of course we all know God does not always answer prayer” – it’s a childish notion you might say, and anyway hedged about with provisos. For example, you have to have faith to move mountains. And in one passage, the only promise is that God will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask in prayer, not the winning numbers in the National Lottery.

Actually this passage from the closing portion of the sermon on the Mount is more concerned with how to treat one’s neighbour than prayer. The preceding few verses are a warning not to judge others. For you will yourself be judged in the same way, and it’s absurd to criticise the speck of sawdust in your neighbour’s eye if you own vision is obscured by a plank.

I wonder if you noticed any similarity between the gospel reading and the passage I read from Isaiah? It starts Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him when he is near. The reading from Matthew starts Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Seeking the Lord is what both have in common. Not asking for favours. And seeking the Lord not only directly, but through interaction with one’s neighbours. The Golden Rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

What Isaiah offers is that God, in his ‘otherness’ can still be found, and he will pardon our wrongdoing. His thoughts are not ours, and his ways far removed from human ones. Yet if we seek him out, God can be found.

Remember the man who knocks up his neighbour in the dead of night. A guest has arrived very late. The shops are closed. He has nothing to set before him. Why would his neighbour risk getting out of bed to help him? Because that man is his neighbour. And he will come to his assistance for that reason alone.

God wants the best for us – that’s the other theme running through both of these passages. His ways are far above ours, and we cannot fathom God’s thoughts, but we can be sure he will give good gifts to those who seek him in faith.

The punchline makes it clear. It’s not about prayer, but the Golden Rule. The conclusion is not about intercessions:

¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you...

...and the promise implied is that God, like a good neighbour, will do the same for us and extend his hands full of good gifts.

Amen

In the Beginning

Sermon Notes for Sunday 12 February at St Giles

Gospel John 1.1-14

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Why is John 1 popping up here? To reflect after Christmas and Epiphany? Paired with Colossians 1. Deliberate focus on nature and origin of Christ.

Colossians
- all things created by him and for him
- he is before all things
- God was please to have all his fullness dwell in Christ

John says much the same
- through him all things were made
- in him was light and life

Jesus is WORD
- Jesus became flesh and blood as the Word
- confusion about meaning of Logos
- John draws on language closely associated with figure of Wisdom

Jesus is Wisdom (Gk Sophia)
- Wisdom of Solomon speaks to God of Wisdom -
“She knows your works and was present when you made the world”
- She helped create the world
- She delights in the human race
- continually tries to impart to us knowledge
- rejected because fools hate knowledge
John says the Word “pitched his tent” among us
- roots wisdom to the earth
- you choose carefully where to pitch a tent

Heady Stuff
Opening of John - compare infancy narratives in Luke, or Mark who dives straight in, or Matthew who starts with genealogy and Wise Men
- need be careful about language we use about Jesus. Almost like a brother. We speak of a man alongside us. In some churches they sing songs of love. Familiar.
- ineffable, God himself, Creator

Grace
Yet Jesus very embodiment of God’s grace
- gives us confidence to call on him
- took on human form
- only through him can we get to know God, who is unknowable
- only through him can we recognise ourselves as children of a beloved God
- through him we receive new identity; hew humanity; new life; new opportunity; new beginning.
- all through the Word

Like a hymn
packed with meaning and metaphor
- testimony to light and life coming into the world
- like poetry, not doctrine
- we can contemplate quietly the profound mystery of incarnation as we read

All sermons need a response
What is yours? What is mine?
John’s gospel makes clear what response the author desires:
The Purpose of this book
²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.

²⁸ Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God!

²⁹ Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

³⁰ Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

³¹ But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20

Believe – Son of God – have life

Written to persuade. Not just relate. Not just narrate. Not a history. Not balanced. Agenda not hidden.

That we should Believe
Verb, not noun
- verb is a doing word
- used 98 times in John
- never a noun

Light and Darkness
- we are offered abundant life
- language of light and dark harks back to Genesis
- all come from God – man and woman from dust
- God pitches his tent – fixed to ground – stuff of Earth = Stuff of God – not separate or different in kind

What’s the reason for all this?
John 10 - ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

¹¹ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Sheep and shepherd – far removed in a way from the ineffable creator Jesus – but proof of his absolute involvement, incarnate in the stuff of Earth.

So what is our response?
- only you can say
- but this is what my response might include:
1. That in hearing John 1 I might accept life – that I might believe in Him, the incarnate Son, and that in believing I might have life abundantly through God’s Grace
2. That I may become a witness to the Light, as John Baptizer
3. That I may bring the good news to the oppressed
4. That I may shine the light of God’s presence into the darker places of our broken humanity.

Like John the Baptist, whose message was less important than who he was, all we have to do is say ‘Look.’
John pointed. ‘Look’ he said ‘here is the Lamb of God.

So, in our lives, more than in our words, we can live abundantly in the light of Christ, pointing to him in what we say and do. That is to live life abundantly.
Amen

A Foreign Woman

Thursday 9 February Midweek Communion at St Giles

Gospel Mark 7

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

The Faith of a Syro-Phoenician Woman

²⁴ Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.

²⁵ In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet.

²⁶ The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷ First let the children eat all they want, he told her, for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.

²⁸ Yes, Lord, she replied, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

²⁹ Then he told her, For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.

³⁰ She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

The Syro-Phoenician woman approaches Jesus as he travelled in the vicinity of Tyre. In the earlier part of Chapter 7 Jesus has been debating with the Pharisees about what is clean and what is unclean. The argument starts when the disciples eat without ritually washing their hands. Jesus argues that nothing is unclean, only the evil thoughts inside a person.

The woman has many reasons why she should not approach Jesus. Why he should spurn and reject her. She’s the wrong gender. Her race counts against her, and she follows the wrong religion. On top of that, she has a daughter who is demon possessed.

That makes 5 excuses why she should not come to Jesus, but her courage and her desire to help her daughter are too strong.

If Jesus has immediately healed the girl, this meeting between Jesus and a Gentile woman would only serve to underline his acceptance and welcome for all people, regardless of their race, gender or religion. Many preachers will wish this was what happened, but no. Jesus likens the woman and her race to dogs.

Subsequently Jesus softens his attitude towards her. The woman’s courage and faith won him over. How can we explain what was in his mind?

Maybe Jesus, fully man as well as fully God, was growing in understanding of his true mission. At first, he seems to have been clear he was sent only to the Jews. Later on – and this meeting with the Syro-Phoenician woman may be pivotal – Jesus widens his remit to include non-Jews too.

If Jesus had wanted to avoid all contact with Gentiles, he would not have travelled to Tyre. If he was not fully man as well as divine, he would not have been able to learn and develop his understanding, as we do. It may be he needed contact with this woman in order for this to take place. This learning process.

This healing story, and parables such as the Unjust Judge illustrate the power of persistent prayer. If the woman had held back, there would have been no story. If Jesus had not goaded her, he would not have developed his understanding and been able to bring her, a foreigner, the good news of salvation that comes with healing.

Instead, there is her story, and with it yours and mine. Jesus stands at our door, with full power to heal, if we approach with courage, compassion and perseverance, praising God for his salvation, offered to us and to all people and not just to his chosen race.

Amen

Village Newsletter February 2012

View from the Vicarage

The ancient Greeks had two words for time. Chronos denotes time as measured by a clock. That’s where the word chronology comes from. Kairos, on the other hand, means the right time or opportune moment.

One expert does a demonstration when talking on time management courses. Taking a large glass jar, he fills it with pebbles and asks the class whether the jar is full. They reply ‘yes – it’s full.’ He then produces a bag of gravel and tips it into the jar. ‘Now is it full?’ By now, people are wary. They’re not sure. Then he has a bag of sand and tips that in. ‘Now is it full?’ I suppose the response is ‘not necessarily.’ It is always possible for the jar to hold smaller and smaller grains without there being no room left, and he can still fit in a glass of water.

As a time management guru his aim is twofold. Firstly to persuade people they should complete the big projects first; but secondly, it is always possible to cram more and more into the working week if you try.

I am sure many unscrupulous employers love this approach. Even benign ones turn a blind eye to longer and longer hours. It saves employing more people, and these days firms rarely pay overtime. Over achievers take note.

Whilst not condoning the drift in the working week, having seen the effect it can have on family life and stress levels, perhaps there’s another conclusion we can draw? Some things are more important than others. They are the big rocks in our lives. Those are the aspects we should prioritise. Stuff we value most. Family. Love. Faith. Health. Wellbeing. Work-life balance.

Other things are less vital. Deal with them only after you have taken care of the big ones. But don’t exclude all the air. You can keep cramming more into your day, but don’t exclude the oxygen of compassion, caring for others, having time for people, and leaving room to breathe.

So tomorrow morning, think of this. What truly are the big rocks in my life? How can I look after them before all else? Am I filling my time with so much that I have no room left for leisure, relaxation, family life, and human flourishing?

Chronos is sequential. It just passes by, regardless of what we do with it. Neither faster nor slower, even when we are rushed off our feet or bored. We can’t stop it. But if we use up too much chromos, we leave no space left for kairos moments. Quality time. Time that has more value than mere chronos.

It might also squeeze out God from our lives. For what is chronos to us may be kairos to God.

 

 

Robert Wright
01296 661358
Church Blog: http://wrightreverend.com

Timothy and Titus

Thursday Midweek Communion 26 January at St Giles

The Collect

Heavenly Father,
who sent your apostle Paul to preach the gospel,
and gave him Timothy and Titus
to be his companions in faith:
grant that our fellowship in the Holy Spirit
may bear witness to the name of Jesus,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Reading 2 Timothy 2

¹ You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

² And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

³ Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

⁴ No-one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs— he wants to please his commanding officer.

⁵ Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules.

⁶ The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.

⁷ Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

⁸ Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel,

Gospel Luke 2

Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ was revealed in flesh, proclaimed among the nations
and believed in throughout the world.
All Alleluia.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-two

¹ After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.

² He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

³ Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

⁴ Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

⁵ When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.'

⁶ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.

⁷ Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

⁸ When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you.

⁹ Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.'

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

The gospel reading is about a ‘sending out.’ 72 followers of Jesus were given a mission to go and tell others what they had seen and heard. The harvest is plentiful, said Jesus, but the workers are few. Isn’t that still the case today?

The disciples were not to rely on their own resources, but to accept hospitality from any who would receive them. It always strikes me as amazing that the spread of the Christian gospel started from so few people in such inauspicious circumstances.

Paul regarded himself as an apostle even though he never met Jesus, and it was mainly thanks to him that the gospel was preached around the Mediterranean and as far as Rome itself. Pauls approach was rather different. He plied his trade as a tent makes, and prided himself on not being a burden to anyone, but to provide for his own keep.

Paul was not alone, though. He had such people as Timothy, Titus and Silas as his followers. Silas accompanied Paul on his travels through Greece and Asia Minor, and was imprisoned with him in Philippi. They were set free by an earthquake that breached the prison walls.

Titus is mentioned in some of Paul’s letters as his companion. Timothy is mentioned in Acts. His father was a Greek, but his mother a Jewish believer. They didn’t always travel with Paul. Timothy was put in charge of the congregation in Ephesus, and Titus looked after the church in Crete. We know this because we have letters written to them by Paul himself. Two addressed to Timothy and one to Titus. They are known as the pastoral epistles. Not surprisingly these epistles differ from Paul’s other letters. They are more personal, and concern church organisation, rather than being like extended sermons that are read out.

There’s a special prayer for today about these two men. It teaches us to follow their example, and the examples of the 72 who told others what they themselves had learned. It goes like this:

Almighty God, who called Timothy, Titus, and Silas to be Evangelists and teachers, and made them strong to endure hardship: Strengthen us to stand fast in adversity, and to live righteous and godly lives in this present time, that with sure confidence we may look for our blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The Messianic Secret

Mid week communion at St Giles

Thursday 12 January 2011

Reading 1 Samuel 8

Israel Asks for a King

⁴ So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.

⁵ They said to him, You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.

⁶ But when they said, Give us a king to lead us, this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.

⁷ And the LORD told him: Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.

¹⁰ Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king.

¹¹ He said, This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.

¹² Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plough his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

¹³ He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.

¹⁴ He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.

¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.

¹⁶ Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.

¹⁷ He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.

¹⁸ When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.

¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel. No! they said. We want a king over us.

²⁰ Then we shall be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.

²¹ When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD.

²² The LORD answered, Listen to them and give them a king. Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, Everyone is to go back to his town.

Gospel Mark 1

Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ was revealed in flesh, proclaimed among the nations
and believed in throughout the world.
All Alleluia.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

A Man With Leprosy

⁴⁰ A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, If you are willing, you can make me clean.

⁴¹ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said. Be clean!

⁴² Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

⁴³ Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:

⁴⁴ See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.

⁴⁵ Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Mark’s gospel is a fast paced account of the ministry and mission of Jesus. The words immediately and at once crop up all the time. We are moved quickly from one incident to another. Remember this is the first chapter of Mark. Jesus’ baptism by John fills the first 11 verses. Then there is the temptation in the wilderness and the call of the first disciples. Jesus’ first healing comes in verse 21. Mark seems to draw little distinction between healing souls and healing bodies. We need both.

Leprosy in the Bible is a particularly nasty affliction. The word covers not only leprosy itself, but many other skin complaints. Sufferers were shunned from society, forced to live outside the towns and avoided at all costs.

The leper’s approach is therefore bold. He uses the words If you are willing… or if you can, you can make me clean. Given what Jesus has been doing, I don’t think this means the leper doubts Jesus’ ability to heal, but his preparedness to touch the leper or have any contact with him at all.

Jesus heals him with the words I am willing. Be clean. But before saying these words, he reaches out and touches the man. Jesus, Mark says, is full of compassion.

What theologians call the Messianic Secret follows. The man is warned not to tell anyone what has happened. The leper of course ignores the warning. Who can blame him? He broadcasts his joy to everyone.

One practical reason for the warning might be the crowds that inevitably turned out. Jesus was followed about and could hardly move for the crush. Hardly the best conditions in which to preach his gospel.

Another explanation might be that the crowds might get the wrong idea of what sort of a Messiah he was. Not the military leader, but the servant of all.

The result of all this was that Jesus tended to favour lonely out of the way places, and this is especially the case when he prays alone.

You can contrast today’s gospel with the demand for a King. Prior to Samuel’s anointing of Saul, Israel was a theocracy, with prophets interpreting the will of God for his people. Jesus’ incarnation returns us to a direct relationship with God. No longer is there any need for mediation, by a King, a Messiah, a church, a priest or anyone else.

The trouble with this for some people is that faith revolves very much around ‘me’ rather than ‘us.’ Whenever we say the Lord’s Prayer, it’s wise for us to recall that the disciples were taught Our Father and not My Father.

Amen

Epiphany

Sunday 8 January 2012 at St Giles

Reading Ephesians 3.1-12 Jan Scobey

I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles –

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Gospel Matthew 2.1-12

Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ was revealed in flesh, proclaimed among the nations
and believed in throughout the world.
All Alleluia.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Epiphany falls on 6 January. Unless that happens to be a Sunday, some churches miss it altogether. Instead, they observe the Baptism of Christ, which is itself a kind of epiphany. In Matthew 3, we read:

¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Look up Epiphany in a dictionary, and you will find two main meanings. One is the feast itself celebrating the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. The other tells you what it really means. A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something. In particular, Epiphany reveals to us the reality of God, usually by a sudden realisation by intuition.

Last year, I talked about the part played by the Magi. The mysterious, shadowy figures that have captured the imagination of Christians since before the gospels were written down. What we know about them is speculation. Today I want to concentrate on what they represent.

In the story, there are the opposites of Worship and Hostility. Reactions to Jesus have been polarised since the very beginning. The Magi came to worship, so it says in v2. We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.

Does that strike you as odd? They did not make a journey of discovery. They did not just come to record and observe. They did not come out of curiosity, or academic inquiry. No – they came to worship.

Some theologians claim the word proskyneo can only be translated as referring to worship of God, but there are many instances in the Greek OT of people bowing down and worshipping other human beings or angels. David the King, and Elisha the prophet for example. Ruth worshipped Boaz.

Personally I find it hard to accept that astrologers, or wise men from the east, could bow down and do homage to Jesus merely because he was future King of the Jews in the line of David, unless they were worshipping him as much more than a mere human being.

Herod on the other hand led the hostility. Herod’s part in the story foreshadows the hostility that will be shown to Jesus by the powerful people of his day who sought to destroy him. Religious leaders do the bidding of Herod the tetrarch who believed Jesus threatened his position. In a cruel twist of fate, at the very end the roles are reversed. Pilate takes orders from the Chief Priest and hands Jesus over to be executed.

So we have the opposite extremes. Worship and open Hostility. The real Kings are not the three wise men but Herod and Jesus. One is the tyrant who rules by terror. The other is the servant king who shepherds his sheep. There are parallels today if we look around the world, especially in Africa and see what kind of leaders are in power.

Epiphany, of course, is not about the quality of leadership, but the revelation of God and whom He favours. And it’s clear from the gospels that God’s favour does not rest with the powerful like Herod or the religious authorities. His favour does not even rest with the learning of the Magi, although it was to them He revealed the birth of Jesus. His favour did not rest with the arrogant or the wise, those men who tipped off Herod that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. No – in spite of the massacre of the innocents God’s favour rests with the meek, the humble, the servant leader, the shepherds, the little children, the disadvantaged, the poor, and the trusting.

Does that not unfairly exclude the learned, religious leaders, and those with authority? By no means. Take Paul the apostle in today’s reading from Ephesians. Paul was a religious leader. Paul was learned. Paul wielded authority and persecuted the early church. Yet on the road to Damascus Paul had his own epiphany – there shone a bright light, and he heard the voice of Christ.

By God’s grace, he says, the mystery of Jesus Christ was made know to him by revelation. He stopped lording it over others and became a servant of the gospel. He became the least of all God’s people in his own eyes. Those things that had been hidden in God were made known to him. And through Paul, of all people, the gospel spread through the Mediterranean world. All that – the very prosperity and survival of the good news – came through one epiphany moment. And that can profoundly change the way we are, the way we act, the way we relate to our maker.

This is why the church’s observance of epiphany ought not be a triumphal occasion. Both today’s readings encourage humble submission to God, and the realisation that God's glory may be manifest where we least expect it. Sometimes God's people become light for others . Sometimes they appear blind to the light others can see. But always, the light is there, as God graciously, mysteriously, and defiantly breaks into human lives. Amen

A View from the Vicarage

January 2012

View from the Vicarage

January 2012

It was time to lock St Giles after the last of the Church Mice had left. I inserted the huge key in the ancient lock. It turned a short way then jammed. The key would not move either way and remained stuck in the lock.

When the specialist locksmith removed the mechanism, tucked inside was a browning fragile piece of paper. Written in pencil were these words:

“This lock was taken off & cleaned &oiled in June 1936 by F N Read, Churchwarden. And also vestry lock Sept 30 1954.”

Frederick Reed was church warden for 45 years. During that time he must have lovingly cared for this precious ancient monument, and been proud enough of his work to leave a record behind for us to discover long after his death. Until then, we had considered changing the locks for more modern ones. Finding this note encouraged us to have the locks cleaned, oiled and fixed so that now we can look forward to many more years of good service in the future. We might even leave a note of our own. I have the precious note in front of me now, and will be scanning it for our records.

St Giles is by far the oldest building in the village. I often think about the changes it has seen over many centuries. Many occasions of joy and sadness. Many dangers and threats. If the world changed out of all recognition between 1936 and 1954, just imagine its witness over many lifetimes.

It’s wrong that the cost of maintaining this ancient monument should fall solely on those who are regular members of the church, and that is why we are asking for help from the village. At some time or other, very many of us look to the church or its vicar and church wardens at significant moments in our families’ lives. What we really need are covenants of small amounts paid monthly to support the fabric and the work of the church in our village. If you would like to participate in any way, please email me with your name and address and I will send you a sponsorship form.

St Giles is of course not just a building but a community of faith. St Giles is your parish church, regardless of your own religious beliefs. There is an apparent permanence to its presence on the hill outside the village. It is a testament to the faith of those countless folk like Mr Read who served the church faithfully and are now at rest in its graveyard. But its continued existence in its present form is not guaranteed, as we know from the number of redundant churches in villages and towns around the country.

As a community we are in rude health, but financially we need help. The fading, brown note is evidence of faithful service, but faith itself is not certainty, nor is the future of our building assured. Faith is the courage to live with uncertainty. It is never easy. All of us wrestle with our faith, but the reward is that we find a life with meaning. Please consider joining us.

Robert Wright
01296 661358
wrightreverend@gmail.com

Christmas Day

Holy Communion at 8.30am

Gospel Luke 2.1-14(15-20)

Alleluia, alleluia.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen his glory. John 1.14
Alleluia.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

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.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

 

Sermon

I wonder if you remember some of the cinema films from the 1960s filmed in soft focus, improving the appearance of Doris Day or Grace Kelly on giant screens filmed in unforgiving 70mm? Still photographs were painstakingly airbrushed to hide the blemishes on models’ faces. More recently, anyone with a computer can make people look slimmer, smooth out teenage spots, or enhance selectively any aspect of an image. There’s one free program called Perfect 365 which with one click will make eyes bigger, touch out lines, and even apply make up automatically. It makes portraits conform to some sort of ideal.

Have we done something like that to Christmas? Our picture of the holy family is softened. Mary in her blue robe gazes lovingly at a rosy cheeked blond baby tucked up nicely in fresh straw. Shepherds gaze on in respectful wonder, their charges all fluffy like balls of cotton wool. The floor of the stable is well swept and Joy to the World plays from an unseen orchestra.

In our heart of hearts we know it wasn’t like that. Imagine the stench and risk of infection. Mary a frightened teenager. Joseph out of his depth. And the shepherds – the undesirables of the 1st century, on the lowest rung of the ladder in the hickest backwater of a remote and fractious part of the Roman empire.

Why do we airbrush the scene? Is there anything wrong if we do? My hunch is that for many of us life is increasingly hard, and we struggle to hold it together amidst the threat of chaos that threatens to overcome us at work or at home. We’ve had enough realism on the daily News, thank you. Can’t we look forward to something good, pure and beautiful, just for once, at Christmas, before we have to return to the grittier stuff in January? After all, we put a lot of effort into managing our turbulent lives and it’s understandable that we want a break to sooth our beleaguered souls. Where’s the harm in that?

The answer’s not so obvious. You might say the census arranged by Quirinius provides the order amongst all that chaos. Yes King David in the OT was punished by God for making a count of his men. The birth of Jesus could have been well ordered and controlled, but God clearly chose the opposite. Luke’s nativity scene is telling us that something beautiful, precious and wonderful can be seen in conditions that are vulnerable, fragile, dirty, chaotic and downright dangerous.

God breaks through into our space in the incarnation at the very margins. Not in bright ethereal light, but a flickering candle. Not well-ordered, hygienic, and tranquil but in the blood, sweat and tears of labour in a filthy environment surrounded by squalor and livestock.

Something in this scene speaks to us of our quest for financial security, a comfortable home, a better job with prospects, or an enjoyable retirement. These aspirations may be good, but they don’t ultimately satisfy. We don’t look back on time spent on the sofa with joy. Our real achievements are bought with greater hardship and sacrifice than that.

God comes to us at Christmas amidst the ups and downs. He speaks to us not in our ordered lives, but in the blood, sweat and tears. His voice is the sound of sheer silence. Easily overwhelmed by the noise of our daily existence. He comes to give us abundant life. That does not mean more of the life we know. Not more of the same, but something more. God speaks to us of his love. He says Unto you this day is born a saviour, Christ the Lord. In the busy time ahead, pause to reflect on this message, and make sure it can be heard. Amen

Midnight Mass

Christmas Eve at 11pm

Gospel John 1. 1 – 14

Today [This night/day] Christ is born:
Today [This night/day] the Saviour comes:
Today [This night/day] the angels sing on earth:
Alleluia. Glory to God in the highest.

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Like many people I’m a fan of Professor Brian Cox. I don’t understand much of what he says. At school I had to study Latin instead of the sciences, so all I have is General Science at O Level. And m y lack of any real maths ill equips me to solve his most basic equations. But when he points to the galaxy and confidently tells us it contains a billion stars, I am duly impressed. When he then claims to know there are a billion galaxies my brain overloads.

For some people, Science and Religion are opposed. For me it’s the opposite. I see God in the night sky. I hear him in Mozart and Dvorak. I read about him in John 1.

A few years ago, I walked inside the Large Hadron Collider. It stretches for several kilometres under Switzerland and a bit of France. It wasn’t switched on at the time. It was a huge machine which spoke to me of human engineering. There was nothing sublime about it.

But when we read about the Word that was in the beginning, the finger of God is all over it. It attests to his involvement in history from the very beginning. Perhaps when we know more of the Higgs Boson, if such a particle exists, we will find out more about what happened in the first few moments of the Big Bang. In the meantime, I’m happy to assert there was a creative force that existed before time and space, and that from outside our dimension everything that was and is came into being through his word. I can understand creation that way much more easily than a cataclysmic explosion with no known origin or cause.

This same God might have endowed us with freewill, but that does not mean he has abandoned our world to its fate. It is a mystery to me why God seems to get involved with his creation in some ways, but not in others. But the gospels reveal that God shows up with people whom the world counts as nothing. The circumstances of the birth of Jesus. The shepherds who were mistrusted outcasts from society, yet were chosen to hear the news first. Then right throughout his ministry Jesus speaks to the marginalised and rails against respectable authority.

Tonight we hear again about the light coming into the world. How can we possibly become involved? God is transcendent – outside of time and space – yet we can listen to the music in which he is present – we can meditate on these mysteries as Mary did “pondering these things in her heart” – we can hear and receive the message that God brings to us in Jesus – and we can receive him through holy communion which we are about to share together.

God is present though, not only in the transcendent but also the mundane. As Publius Sulpicius Quirinius made plans for his census, who might have been aware of the way God might be working through this insignificant Roman aristocrat? So we must see God in the greatness of creation, but also in the people and the events that in human terms seem to matter least.

The shepherds were the most untrustworthy witnesses to a great event anyone could have possibly picked. Yet their evidence reaches down through the ages.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Amen