Sermon for 20 November 2016 - Three Prophecies

Jeremiah 23:1-6

This morning we are going to spend some time looking at the passage we heard read from Jeremiah – it would help me if you had your Bibles open in front of you, so you can follow along, as we look at the text - It is quite rare for me to preach on the Old Testament, and so this morning has provided me with a great opportunity to think a little bit about those books in the first part of our Bibles, those stories that deal with God and his people Israel. Jeremiah, who we heard from this morning, comes from over two and a half thousand years ago – a time when God’s people, Israel, were under threat. Pagan kings were invading, or threatening to invade; the people charged with looking after God’s people were not making the right decisions; and God’s people were not living right. Things were chaotic.

Jeremiah was a prophet; it is worth thinking a little bit about what that means – we have a lot of books in the Bible that fall into this group ‘prophecy’. But what does it mean? Often we think of prophecy as something mysterious, it isn’t that. Sometimes we think of prophecy as foretelling the future, it is sometimes that; how are we to understand it?

The prophets were men (and women) who spoke God’s Word, to God’s people, at God’s command.

However, almost without exception, the people do not understand, or they think that a big plan of God is about something very small and parochial. And so we come to our passage today. We will look at three short prophecies within this text, and ask what God is saying.

Three short prophecies: Judgement - Mercy - Jesus

 First prophecy: vv1-2: Judgement

Lets hear those words from Jeremiah again:

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord.

“Woe to the shepherds!” This is serious stuff! We hear, by the mouth of the prophet, God cursing those “shepherds who are destroying” his people.  Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to them – God is clear about the demands he places on those who would lead – we see something very similar in the New Testament when Jesus uses this word “woe” himself, announcing God’s displeasure at those Teachers of the Law, who (instead of helping) make things worse for God’s People. God has charged those in government and religious leadership with a high calling, because he cases so deeply for his people.  God loves his people, and he demands that those who lead must love them too. Love them enough to lead them well; love them enough to teach the Word of God.

This isn’t to completely exonerate the people, though! Although it is the leaders who led astray, the people went willingly, and so bring judgement upon themselves. Yet, in God’s economy, those who lead must bear a greater part of the responsibility. Speaking these words sends shivers down my spine – every time I stand up here, I ask you to trust me – I put myself under the judgement of God. We don’t have to look far to see leaders who put their own interests above the interests of those who they are called to serve – we can think of people in business, local politics, the church, or world leaders. They bear a heavy mantle, and so it is essential that we remember to pray for them.

And so, in this opening prophecy, we hear that God has set himself against the shepherds who misled the flock – and they are to be punished. The punishment that we hear of here is probably the punishment that God sent by the Babylonians, who invaded Israel and led God’s people away captive into exile. The prophet understands something of the bigger picture – the dreadful stuff that is going on, the invasions we thought about a moment ago, are all part of God’s plan for his people – everything is happening because God loves his people. Woe to the shepherds.

The second prophecy: vv3-4:  Mercy

We turn in our Bibles to verses 3&4, which we will read in a moment, we pause and think about God’s loving judgement, his loving anger at sin, and at those who seek to do harm, those who abandon their duties. Yet – that’s not the end of the story, Verses 3 & 4 say:

3“I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. ⁴ I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

Here, we see God’s mercy, his love for his people take a different shape. God’s wrath and anger at the nation’s sin is poured out, and his purposes complete. Although nothing compelled him, he relented, and act of pure gracious love; his inexhaustible love. His deep, caring love for his people. God promises to bring his people, his remnant home. Although it was at his hand that the people were scattered for their sins, the consequence of their actions, it is God who brings them home.

It was God’s love that drove them away; as his love could not bear the mistreatment of his people, the bad leadership, and open the sin forever. God had to act, and he acted decisively by raising up foreign leaders, and permitting them to wage war – but only for a time.

‘Only for a time’ because it was God’s love that brings his people home again. Not merely home to ruins, desolation, and slavery, however. God brings his flock home so they can flourish, be fruitful, and increase in number. God wants good things for his people, because he loves them. For those who first heard these words, the Jews, this prophecy sounded like a promise to return to the Holy Land, to have new priests, and to have big families. Now, there is truth in that – as we see when the Jews return from exile – but for us as Christians the full picture is a bit different; as we will see – our understanding of blessing ties into who Jesus is, and what he did, and does, for us.

Third prophecy: vv5-6: Jesus

Finally we come to the third section of our passage this morning – the place where it all comes together. We have seen how God’s love for his people results in anger at sin, and bad leadership. We have thought about how God’s mercy and faithfulness to his people, and we recognised that, for the Church, God’s mercy and faithfulness expressed in Jesus. And so we read verses 5 & 6:

⁵ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will raise up for David^[a] a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
    and do what is just and right in the land.
⁶ In his days Judah will be saved
    and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
    The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.

A few moments ago we thought about what the promises of God were understood to mean by some of those who first heard them; but now, with this promise of a King – the messiah – Jesus – King David’s heir, we can think about what those promises mean for us, God’s people, the church – those who respond in faith to the claims of Jesus.

We thought about ‘returning home’ and yet as Christians we recognise that we are truly home only in Jesus. We thought about the new priests to replace the evil leaders, but as Christians we know that our true priest -our true shepherd- is Jesus. And we thought about the growth of families, but for the church, our true family in Jesus – and it grows as we welcome people to respond in faith to Jesus.

God says that his people will no longer be afraid, or terrified – and we know that since Jesus has triumphed over death there is now no fear – even in the grave for those who are God’s people. We can see how Jesus, in this final prophecy fulfils God’s promised blessing for us- however- we need to delve deeper.

Jesus is the mercy of God, because in him, and in his cross, we see the judgement of God poured out against sin. Jesus fulfils the first prophecy, too. He was punished for our transgressions, for our sins. Jesus died to take the punishment for the sins of his people. The good Shepherd suffering like a wicked Shepherd, and prays “Father, forgive”. In Jesus, and only in Jesus do we see the love of God for his people displayed in perfect just judgement, and abounding gracious mercy.

To Conclude – We have thought about God’s love being shown in his judgement, and in his mercy – but these two come together perfectly in the person of Jesus Christ. I want us to think about whether we know that love of God, which wrought in judgement and mercy at the cross, brings us blessing, and saves us from fear – even fear of death. How can we know it? We can know, because in the words of Scripture he calls to us - warns us – loves us. So, let’s take that love upon ourselves, and offer ourselves and our lives in response.

Amen

Justification by Faith and Our Participation

Today's post grows out of my continued reading of Charles Raith's short, but reasonably dense, book Aquinas and Calvin on Romans: God's Justification and Our Participation. The title, as I am sure you will agree, is quite self explanatory. The work ostensibly moves through Paul's letter to the Romans as a way of discussing Aquinas' and Calvin's different readings of the text. The main two prongs of his argument being: first, Aquinas' position is, in fact, not the same as the "schoolmen" who provoked so much of Calvin's ire; secondly, Calvin's mind-set of competitive causality - that is to say, that human and divine causality are mutually exclusive - is flawed, and circumvented by Aquinas' participatory reading of Paul.

You might not be shocked to read that I disagree with this second point.

You may - depending on how much Aquinas you've read - not be shocked to read that, in many areas, Calvin and Aquinas are in profound agreement; both seeing themselves, in some respects, as heirs of Augustine. Both share the language of election, justification by faith, unmerited grace, &c.

Where, then, is the disagreement?

This is where we enter the discussion - which may seem, to many readers, akin to 'angels dancing on pinheads' - as to the way in which justification by faith 'works', particularly in relation to our longer-term hope of sanctification - that is to say, becoming more like Jesus.

Beginning with Aquinas - for no other reason than he was chronologically first - it is to say that justification, or a right standing before God, begins in God and has its outworking in our faith. Our faith becomes the way in which Christ's righteousness is 'infused' into us. In fine, something of Christ becomes something of us so that we in ourselves are made righteous in and of ourselves. We are made righteous before God in se. Being, therefore, made righteous people Aquinas understands our sanctification to be part of justification, not a second grace.

Moving to Calvin who says that the justification we receive by faith - a faith that, again, begins in the faithfulness of God - is more like a cloak, of sorts. His analogy is that we 'wear' Jesus' righteousness to cover our sinfulness - although we remain in ourselves sinful. This is a righteousness that is extra nos - outside of ourselves. We use the term 'imputed' here to mean 'ascribed'; Jesus' righteousness is imputed to us, we don't become righteous in se. This means, in an almost clinical way, that justification - a right standing before God - and sanctification - becoming more like Jesus - are distinct works of God for the believer.

Hopefully you are still with me - not long to go - I want to explore the implications of these two positions a little further.


Beginning again with Aquinas: because righteousness is 'infused' in us - and because, therefore we are righteous in se - we can do works that are good, in and of, themselves as they come from our transformed and newly righteous will. But - and here is the major downside - it also means that when we sin we damage the righteousness in us. Which - to conclude Aquinas for today - means we must either (1) participate in our salvation by good works, or (2) lose our salvation by sinning.

Things are completely different for Calvin, however. Because, here, we think of righteousness as a 'cloak' that covers us - whilst God slowly does the work of sanctification in us - our works are never good in se. We cannot, therefore participate in, or add to, the righteousness that is extra nos - outside of us, alien, and fully Christ's. The corollary to this is that when we sin - and we do sin - our sin cannot damage our righteousness, because it is not our own righteousness, it is fully Christ's.

This is why I remain convinced by Calvin's reading of Paul. Aquinas' ever repeating pattern of avoiding sin, sinning, restoration, avoiding sin, sinning, restoration, that forms the heartbeat of Thomist morality is alien to the gospel I know - the gospel where Christ came to save sinners. Calvin, conversely, presents Christ as a place to which I might flee; a refuge where I might hide; a righteousness upon which I can fully depend.

Isaiah 61:10 (ESV)

 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

 

Evensong 31 July - Psalm 95

Introduction:

What is God like, and how should we respond?

Two big questions.

These are two very big questions for fifteen minutes on a Sunday evening.

Theologians, philosophers, thinkers, and I’m sure all of us have spent time asking these two questions.

So before we begin to look at the psalm in more detail, let us pray:

        Heavenly Father...

The psalms were written by people who spent their lives trying to answer these questions as best they could. Through them, and through their words, God offers us answers to the big questions like “what is God like, and how should we respond”. This psalm is no different, it answers the first question: “what is God like” by telling us ‘God is our sovereign Creator and he is our shepherd’. The second question: How should we respond? The psalm says ‘We should worship and listen to his voice’. And what does his voice tell us? It tells us not to harden our hearts and rebel against him, because if we do – we will not enter his rest.

God is Creator and shepherd; we should worship and listen; God tells us not to harden our hearts.

So, by way of an overview: you may have noticed that Psalm 95, is a psalm of two halves.

The first half (verses 1-7) is an exhortation, or an encouraging command to, worship. In this first section, God is the sovereign creator who has saved a people for himself. Although this refers back to the saving of the people of Israel from Egypt, it is no less true for us who have been saved from sin by the cross. It says also He is a shepherd to his flock, again, we understand that to mean he shepherds those who seek him by faith, the church.

The second half (verses 7-11) is God’s warning to us not to harden our hearts, not to make demands of him just because we are, outwardly, a part of the people of God.

Let’s take a few minutes to look at the detail.

First point (verses 1-7) – Praise and Worship

The psalm takes us on something of a ‘spiritual journey’, not unlike our service this evening. And it does so, beginning in verse one and two where the psalmist encourages us in our singing.

I’m pleased to say that I think you have all taken his command to heart, because I think we’ve all excelled in singing for joy to the LORD this evening. But, we aren’t gathered as a ‘singing club’, are we? Likewise, the psalmist doesn’t just tell us we should worship the LORD in song and thanksgiving, he tells us why we should. And, it is quite straight forward looking at verses 3-5:

 “for the LORD is the Great God, the great King above all gods”.

Now, are there other gods? Many people in the ancient world when this psalm was written simply accepted that there were. They knew that other nations worshipped multitudes – perhaps they were “real”? The psalmist doesn’t entertain the discussion. even if there were other gods, the LORD is the King over all. He is the great God. And so, it is not hard for us to see our modern gods in the same light – perhaps the most popular of these, money, or success, or anything that distracts us from a life of discipleship – a life following Jesus -  we have made into a god. We have worshipped it. We have committed idolatry. But, when we compare our little gods, money, success, anything, to the Great God the LORD we see that our gods are no gods at all. We should worship as a response when we recognise who God is, and what he is like.

The psalmist takes us on further – we have sung and given thanks (verses 1-2), we have been confronted with the greatness of God and our duty to respond to him in praise (verses 3-5) – now the psalmist calls us deeper into worship. We are to bow ourselves down, to kneel before him, but not out of fear. Rather, we are to do so as we recognise his care for us. Verse 7 tells us that we the Church (the Israel of God) are the flock under his care. God is frequently thought of as shepherd in the Bible – Perhaps most famously in Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd, but also when Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd in the gospels. God cares for us, and this is cause to praise, but also cause to listen to his voice. Jesus says not only that he is the Good Shepherd, but also that his sheep know his voice.

And so, finally in this first half of the psalm, the psalmist culminates in a plea for those who hear the psalm to listen to the voice, or the message of God. This is in the end of verse 7: “O that today you would listen to his voice!”.

Second Point (verses 7-11)– God’s Voice, God’s Warning

We have been called to hear the voice of God. And that is the purpose of a sermon or a Bible study, to hear God speak from the pages of scripture. And just in case we were in any doubt as to the content of God’s message, the second half of this psalm from verse 8, is a summary of what God has to say to us.  It can be thought of as a summary of the witness of the Old Testament. “Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness”.

To be honest with you, I had to look these two places up! How often is it that we fail to understand the Bible fully because we simply haven’t spent enough time exploring the stories, looking at the people, the events, the places, and seeing how God has worked through all of them. To get to the bottom of this we need to find Exodus 17:7 – jot it down if you are taking notes, it is worth a look later  – a biblical concordance would have sent you there, or a good commentary on the text.

Reading from the start of the chapter, we hear of a quarrel that broke out among the Israelites and Moses. The people of God had recently been freed from slavery in Egypt by mighty miracles, and led away to safety, but they still demanded more. They demanded water by miraculous sign. They doubted God, and tested him. Even those they were visibly within the people of God, their hearts had not learned to trust God as their rock. And so, the place was called Massah which means testing, and Meribah which means contention. They had Moses strike a rock to produce water, which they thought would save them from thirst. But they were foolish and stubborn because the Lord is the rock of our salvation. We heard that in verse one, and as the ancient Israelites needed to be reminded, so do we. It is no different now, for the people of God, the Church. We might be visibly “in”, but we have failed to grow in trust and faith, because we have not yet learned to see who God is, and we have not yet listened to his voice.

Conclusion

Do we put God to the test? Are our hearts so hardened that we do not believe he rewards those who seek him by, as Hebrews 11:6 tells us in no uncertain terms. We must learn to trust the providence of God, his forward planning. We can trust him because we can know what he is like. We saw that in the first half of the psalm. He is the great God, who makes a people for himself to shepherd.  In the Old Testament he did this by at the exodus; in the New Testament we see him completing this work on the cross.  

He shepherds his people, and speaks to them by his word. And when he speaks to his people, he warns them. He warns them so that they might return to him. He warns them not to harden their hearts, and refuse to obey because in so doing they miss out on entering into his rest.

This is serious stuff, but we must not forget: The voice of God that calls to us from this psalm this is cause to rejoice. God wants us to turn to him in joy and worship, with humble hearts, so that we may enter into his rest. So come Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation  - Amen

 

 

Easter Day - A Homily: John 20:1-9

Introduction:

Good morning, Happy Easter, it is a great joy for me to be with you this morning, and to get the opportunity to open the Scriptures with you. I last preached here four weeks ago, and then we spoke about how time was short before Easter, and the need to prepare ourselves spiritually. I said that we needed soberly to take stock of our lives. Well, I have a confession, this morning. I have failed to do that. Frankly, I am not sure that it is even possible to prepare oneself, properly and adequately, for Easter. We will see in this morning’s reading that the disciples were not ready. The resurrection of Jesus took them by complete surprise. In the sermon we will also think about the wondrous “new creation” that flows from Jesus resurrection. And finally we will think about the challenge that faces the disciples, and faces us. The challenge to see and believe; that believing we might have life in his name.

So, let us pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of your son Jesus Christ, Light of the World, and Word of God. Speak to us now that Word. Amen.

Homily:

St John begins this morning’s reading by telling us that it was “very early on the first day of the week, and still dark”. John is doing something clever here; he is weaving together ideas from other places in the Bible. He is trying to get us to think, to think about what the Bible has always taught, and what the Bible might be teaching now. We can see that light and darkness are such powerful themes throughout the Bible, particularly here in the Gospel of St John. At the beginning of his gospel, the part we often hear at Christmas, John calls Jesus the light of the world. He says that Jesus, the light of the world, came into the darkness. And that the darkness did not understand the light. And that is, very much, where this morning’s gospel passage begins. The darkness of human sin, the darkness of hate, greed, the darkness of broken relationship with each other and with God, has had its way. The Darkness of Sin has killed the Light of the World.
Darkness seems to have had its victory. And, whilst it was still dark, Mary Magdalene goes to visit the tomb.

She goes with a small group of other women. But John wants us to focus on Mary, on her story, as she comes to the fore to pass on the most important message in history. We cannot be entirely sure of her motivation for visiting the tomb so early. Perhaps she went to anoint the body; perhaps to weep; perhaps just to sit close to her lord. Whatever the reason, we find her there; in that garden of graves; in the dark; on that cold first day of the week.

The language of Darkness appears elsewhere in the bible, as does this focus on the day. Note how John tells us that it is the first day of the week. This is a small but important detail in the story, where John wants us to take note of the creative work of God. For him, resurrection parallels creation. So this passage harks back to the story in Genesis:

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

Unwittingly, Mary finds herself caught up in the “first day” of a new creation. Everything is being made new around her. But, she can’t yet see it. All she can see is the empty tomb, the darkness, the deep. She cannot yet feel that wind from God that is carving out day from night; and calling her and the world into the first day of the new creation; the first day of resurrection.

Mary, oblivious at this stage to the work of God going on around her, runs. In confusion, and sadness, she runs to get the other disciples; Peter and ‘the one whom Jesus loved’. She says to them:

‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him.’ 

The two men hear this and, shaken, run to the tomb to investigate. The beloved disciple is first to arrive but it required Peter, true to form, to enter the sepulchre. He blusters in, and speechless, surveys the empty tomb. The beloved disciple follows. He sees the grave cloths (it must be getting light by this point) the bandages, strips of linen that had swaddled Jesus tightly as he lay dead in the tomb remaking the Sabbath rest, discarded.

This could be no grave robbery.

No overzealous gardener.

Something new was happening.

The Gospel tells us that “he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” Things are beginning to make sense to the Beloved disciple. Jesus had said “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” But the Bible tells us that time and again “they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”

You see, the disciples were not expecting this. No-one was expecting this. Everyone in the ancient world knew this one simple fact – the dead do not come back to life. Some, but by no means all, within the Jewish religion had developed an idea that in some future “age to come” after the end of earthly history it might be possible. But not now. Not here. Not like this. Not in the middle of history, in a borrowed grave, for a man who died a criminal’s death.

And yet, here it was, staring them in the face. Only now would could they see and believe. And so it stares us in the face, too. Will we take this chance to see and believe? The empty tomb, the reality of Jesus resurrection challenges us to take seriously the claims of the man who said “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” But who also said: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you".

The empty tomb that stands before us this morning speaks to us of the new creation that God is making; beginning in Jesus and overflowing to us; but, it also stands as a challenge to us. Will we dismiss the empty tomb and close our eyes to the resurrected Christ who calls us to live a different sort of life, a resurrection life now, trusting in him for eternity. Or will we hear that call, and by faith uproot ourselves and run with Peter and the beloved disciple to stand in awe before that empty tomb. Will we see and believe?

John, at the end of his Gospel says this: “these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” Gaze with me, this morning, into the empty tomb. See, and believe, just as the disciples did all those years ago. Place your trust in him, I pray. The tomb is empty, and he stands poised to meet with you. Place your trust in him, and as we gather around the Table with expectant hearts, feed on him by faith, feed on him who is alive forevermore.

Amen.

A Seasonal Message

A Seasonal Message from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Llandaff - brought to you by the Commissar for Religious Enjoyment:

Many of us will be making New Years Resolutions as we begin this year; with slightly over twelve hours already lapsed,  I am confident many of us have already broken at least some of these resolutions. We often find change incredibly hard, especially change that relates to our behaviour - 'we find that we cannot do the things we want to do, rather we do the things we do not want to do'. This is nothing new, these words echo St Paul's experience almost 2000 years ago. But, don't worry too much if you've already broken your resolution, today is as good a day as any in which to try again. This, I think, is a crucial part of the Christian message "Try Again". There is a recognition that we often all fail to make the right decisions but, by the grace of God, we continue each new year, each new month, each new day. I don't tend to make resolutions, but if I did it would be this: to try again to do good.

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8.

John the Baptist - A Homily

Gospel Reading Luke 3:1-6

This morning’s Gospel reading concerns John the Baptist. John’s story and the story of Jesus are bound up together in the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel. And here, at the beginning of chapter three, as we leap forward almost thirty years from the events of the nativity, the magnificat, and the annunciation, we see that their lives are still entwined, as they each live out God’s calling. John’s calling is to call Israel, and us, back to God.

John is cousin of Jesus, and in some respects the very last of the Prophets. John had the prophetic task of preparing the people of Israel for the ministry of Jesus. He calls the people of Israel to stop, repent, and anticipate the coming ministry of Jesus. We too hear that call today. In this time of year John’s words are particularly meaningful, as we work our way through advent preparing to celebrate Jesus’ birth, but also preparing ourselves for his return.

***

The Gospel passage begins with a list of names that may strike us as confusing, or boring. Yet, Luke includes them for us because they achieve two purposes: First, the introduction roots the story within real history, within real geography. There is a sense that Luke is concerned to ensure we recognise these events as real history. This is to be no mere myth; of the six names mentioned only one cannot be clearly and independently dated.

Secondly, and of more significance to us, this pronouncement of names reads like a fanfare, a scene-setter. This list of names serves to give formal status to that which follows. I don’t know if you have ever seen or read a piece of legislation, one of our laws, as they sit on the statute book? Well, they begin with an enacting clause similar to this:

“in the 64th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth”
"BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons...

This mirrors almost exactly Luke’s opening lines. We can tell from our modern “enacting clause” that what follows is important, it is to be listened to and applied. The powers of the state are set forth and we are to sit up and take notice.  How much more should we sit up and take notice of ministry of John the Baptist, of whom Jesus says elsewhere “among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater”.

And so, we turn to the ministry of John and ask “what is he doing, and why?” The Gospel passage tells that John’s ministry drew on, or in some sense fulfilled, the sayings of the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah spoke a message of hope during a time of national turmoil; but it was not an “easy” hope. It was not trite, Isaiah demanded that the people of Israel returned to God, and lived up to all of God’s expectations.

John preaches harsh words, as did Isaiah, we hear them elsewhere in the gospels. He is in many respects uncompromising. Yet, he has little time for those whom we would think were his natural allies – the Pharisees. They too were uncompromising, but only so far as the externals were concerned, only so far as the letter of the law was concerned. John had no time for this sort of religion. Neither must we.

For John, true religion must change us, not merely our actions. This is what repentance literally means: a change of heart, not merely a change of action. And it is to the heart that John speaks using the language of “paths” “winding ways” and “rough roads”.

The picture, a popular image in ancient world and found throughout the scriptures, is of a triumphant king returning home. The jubilant subjects wish to make it as easy for their beloved king to take up his throne by removing obstacles, and straightening the roads.

This might be difficult for us to picture. Perhaps we can think of the end of Robin Hood; when King Richard returns to restore good and righteous rule and depose Prince John. These illustrations help us to think about how we too must seek to remove the obstacles that prevent Christ from taking his rightful place enthroned in our hearts. Those sins that take root in the secret place of our heart must go. But how?

Surely this is too great a work for us, the Old Testament bears witness to the countless generations in the history of Israel who were called to repentance and yet slid back into Idolatry and sinfulness. John has the answer for us. He says of Jesus in verse 16, just a bit later than this morning’s reading:

“I baptize you with[a] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire."

It is by this baptism of the Holy Spirit that we are enabled to work towards those promises made when we were baptised with water. Let me remind you of them:

• To reject the devil and all rebellion against God;
• To renounce the deceit and corruption of evil;
• To repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbour;
• To turn to Christ as Saviour;
• To submit to Christ as Lord;
• To come to Christ, the way, the truth and the life.

This is a huge undertaking, of that there is no doubt; but as we journey through advent, it is in the power of the same Spirit who raised Jesus Christ to life that we repent of our rebellion against God, and by the same Spirit that we submit to Jesus Christ as Lord.

He is the King who is coming again, and to whom we must all give an account of our lives. But if he is able to make mountains low and fill valleys, then he is able to do this work in us so that we can welcome him with authentic joy.

Amen.

Bartimaeus and the Son of David: A Homily

A couple of people asked whether my sermons are recorded, they are not, but I do stick fairly closely to my script, so what appears here is roughly what the congregation heard:

Sitting in poverty, beside that street two thousand years ago, Bartimaeus, though he is blind, sees a great and eternal truth. As word spreads through the town, gossip and speculation, observation and inference, with the arrival of this itinerant preacher and his band of disciples, Bartimaeus comes to realise the hope that he has in his heart. The faith he has that God will not leave him in his misery, the faith that he has that Messiah has come:

Let us Pray: Almighty and ever wise God, who through your son Jesus Christ have vindicated the Israel of God, the Church, open our ears and hearts to hear your words for us today, by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen

As Jesus approaches where he rests, Bartimaeus makes a bold decision, he cries out in faith. Although it was perhaps opportunistic, or spur of the moment, the phrase that Blind Bartimaeus chooses to address Jesus, Son of David, was far from chance. It was a colloquial, popular expression that indicated that somebody was thought to be the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed Servant of God. As we know from reading the Gospels each Sunday, year in year out, the Jewish people at the time of Jesus had developed a range of ideas about who they thought this Messiah, this saviour, would be and what he would be like. It is fair to say, however, that many of these ideas stemmed from the Jewish scriptures concerning David, the great king. 

In many respects the historic King David was revered, almost as a sort of mythic ‘once and future king’, held in popular imagination like our own king Arthur. It was from the line, or house, of David that the Messiah was to come. We hear this prophecy throughout the old testament. We find it especially in the books of the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, but also in the books of the Prophetswho so often challenged those Kings on behalf of God. We heard from Jeremiah earlier this morning, elsewhere in his book he says (32:4-5) "the LORD says: 'David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel...'". 

Bartimaus must have begun to connect these pieces of the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament to the person of Jesus. From his use of this phrase, Son of David, we can tell that as far as he is concerned Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus has come to save and vindicate Israel - back to our OT Reading for a moment, and Jeremiah who gives us God’s words for Israel: "See, I will bring them back from the land of the North and gather them from the far ends of earth; all of them: the blind and the lame," We can't know for certain that Bartimaeus knew this particular scripture, but he clearly believed that God was in the business of restoring Israel, with perhaps a particular concern for the blind, or otherwise suffering. We are only, at this stage in the story of Jesus, beginning to scratch the surface of what it means for God to restore Israel.

Bartimaeus may well have expected Jesus, as the Messiah, to be a warrior king, who would free the Jewish people from the Roman oppressors, and establish a new Kingdom of Israel. David was such a warrior king; the Old Testament says he united the tribes of Israel, that he defeated their enemies, that he was a great king This is exactly the mould that they expected the messiah to fill, that they expected Jesus to fill. Many believed this about the Messiah, even some within Jesus’ own group of disciples. But even so, it is clear that Bartimaeus had a more nuanced, or more developed idea about the messiah. Not only must the messiah be a great king, he must also be merciful. Bartimaeus hoped that Jesus would be merciful to him. Jesus obliges, giving just a hint of the mercy that will come to represent his Messiah-ship. 

Jesus is so much more than a Warrior king, he achieves so much more than defeating Israel’s earthly enemies, the Romans. Jesus as messiah is to be God’s true king for Israel, and that means restoring, and vindicating. This can only be done by resolving Israel, and the world’s, biggest problem: enmity with God.  We discover in our NT reading discussion of Christ as High Priest, for Israel and indeed all people. This is God's vision for saving Israel, and the letter to the Hebrews continues: 

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, [he is himself that offering, that sacrifice] he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 

Jesus is to die, offering himself upon the cross for the sins of the world before he sits down in the place of honour at the right hand of God. Jesus does sit, enthroned in heaven as King. He is king. But it is not as King that he achieves the work of saving God’s people – it is by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. And so, he truly becomes our messiah, our redeemer-king, when we enter into that salvation. We do not cross the Red Sea to enter into a geographical Israel, we pass through the waters of baptism to join the Israel of God, the Church, which is saved by the Sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, delivering us from sin and death. My plea for you this morning, is that you will draw near to Christ the messiah by faith, and enter into the mystery of his death as we partake of his body and blood crying out “‘Son of David, have pity on me.’

A Sermon For All Saints Sunday - on the occasion of a baptism.

Sermon For All Saints:

                              

Historically, All Saints was a “catch all” provision to ensure that no Heroes of The Faith have been missed, or forgotten in the church calendar. As the church grew, and grew, and grew in the first few hundred years after Christ this became more, and more of an issue, as the year became crowded to over flowing with days for Saints and Martyrs .  Even today, as Christian persecution continues to rage across the world, especially in Iraq and Syria at this time, the number of those deserving of honour, the number of those from whom we have so much to learn, is growing day by day. As we heard from Jesus in this morning’s Gospel reading –

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely[b] on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

About 400 years after Christ, around 1600 years ago, when the calendar was already jam-packed, Pope Gelasius  the 1^st wrote of those “whose names are rightly reverenced among us, but whose actions are known only to God." There are dozens and dozens of Saints who now fit this category. Whose actions, and lives are lost, but whose images adorn our churches, in stained glass, painted relief, and folk tales.  But what about those whose names have been forgotten among us? What about those, who do not have mythic legends, stained glass windows, confraternities, and days in their honour?

Fortunately for us - being a saint is about none of these things.

Sainthood is about sharing in the life and activity of God. You can forget chiseled marble, polished brass, and plaster cast saints. Sainthood is about living in the strength, and power of God.  In the Incarnation, He (God) joined with our human life, so that we might join with his divine life – and that is what it means to be a saint, to participate in the life of God.

Participation in the life of God does not mean that we are expected to be perfect. We are not all expected to fulfill some great self-denying feat, such as those saints of old who took it upon themselves to flee to the wilderness, or those who suffer at the hands of militants in the world today. But we are to have perfection as our aim, our ambition, our end. Because we are animated, and brought to life by God who is perfection, as we seek after him.  The great self-denying feat to which we are called is to take up *our* cross – not St Peter’s, Not St Paul’s, Not St David or St George, St Teresa, or St Catherine – God is calling each one of you to participate in his life, to seek after him, and his kingdom.

Jesus says in verse six of the gospel passage: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” What is righteousness? A good place to start is Right Relationship – firstly with God, and then with our neighbours – so as we seek right relationship with God and Man, God gives to us his righteousness, his spirit, his Life. It is by God’s spirit that we can shine, as lights in t the world – because it is God’s spirit shines through us.

Christ begins to lay out for us what this new life might look like, what “sainthood” might look like, in the Gospel reading we heard today. Jesus gives us a pattern for life that reflects the new life that God has given us.

Blessed are the poor – theirs is the kingdom.

This simple set of verses has transformed the lives of countless millions, throughout the ages. All of whom have been swept up in the redeeming power of God’s action in the world. And it continues to do so now! Reading these verses we encounter, in plain and mundane letters on a commonplace page, the God who calls to us in the spirit, who longs for us to participate in his rebuilding of the cosmos.

Respond, I pray, to the God who came from very high, and lived among us. Not so that we could become famous, or preserved in statue form, or glass windows. But who came to change everything. Follow him, I pray, as he leads us. He will change our lives, as we follow him, through the waters of baptism, through our shared life, as we gather around his table.

Amen

Walking on Water - a Sermon

Readings:

1 Kings 19:9-18, &  Matthew 14:22-33

The picture of Jesus walking on the water is Iconic.

It is perhaps one of the most familiar images for us as Christians. It is also one of the few biblical narratives, or bible stories, that is still part of our culture, and known to people who don’t regularly come to church.

Perhaps it is the “otherness” of the story.

The fact that it is so unbelievable, so counter intuitive, and so contrary to the way we understand how the world works, that adds to the story’s popularity. This ‘fantastic’ element is found within all of the Nature Miracles, those miracles in which Jesus demonstrates His control over nature. Jesus walking on water; Jesus calming the storm; Jesus multiplying bread and fish to feed the multitudes. These events strike us as impossible, because they run so contrary to our experience of life, and our environment.

It would have been no less so for the disciples!

Sceptics often make the error of attributing these stories to the ignorance, or naiveté, of the apostles. The sceptic will say “these things can’t happen!” and assume therefore, that to have written about such things, the apostles simply must have misunderstood the laws of nature. 

Make no mistake here, although they did not understand the “mechanics” as we do, although they didn't have sophisticated scientific method to record their observation, they did know how the world worked. They did know what things could, and couldn't happen. If anything, I would say they had a greater understanding (if more basic) than we do, simply because they spent more time in nature.

These were fishermen; they knew people could not walk on water.

I'm not sure there is a people, or occupational group, in the world who would know this fact better than them. I'm certain that they knew more about the tides and waves than I will ever know. It would be preposterous to think, absolutely arrogant to think, that these people were confused by the event – somehow thinking people could walk on water.

We even know from the scripture itself that they couldn't believe it at first: Verse 26 says:

“And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.”

A ghost. They thought it was a ghost. They thought a man walking on water would be so impossible, so unlikely, that their first thought was a ghost.  They knew men cannot walk on water. Further to this, after Jesus calls to them, calming them, they still do not think it can be – and they challenge him, verse 28:

“ And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”

Jesus, in his compassion, complies.

He takes Peter with him onto the water, with the waves billowing around them, they walk. Peter had taken a huge leap of faith, taking those few steps from the boat – My mind wanders to the moon landing, and those famous words “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” –  This was indeed a huge leap for man, but unable to escape his surroundings, Peter cannot yet appreciate it.

You see, Peter cannot yet let go of his doubts, his fears, his presuppositions, his anxiety and he begins to doubt. Sinking into the water. Sinking into despair. Sinking into mistrust. Sinking. Jesus reaches out, grabs his arm, and helps him. Peter finally now begins to see him, to really see Him, for the first time.

There had been a lot of miracles so far, but nothing like this. Because men cannot walk on water. Peter is struggling for words to express his thoughts, his instincts, perhaps this frustration contributed to his doubts, his confusion. Because men cannot walk on water.

They climbed back into the boat; and everything had changed. Because men cannot walk on water. Peter knew that. And as he staggered, hands and knees, into the boat he remained face-down, his knees bent – I imagine his companions fell to theirs. Because, men do not walk on water.

I doubt at this point they understood, I doubt they knew for sure, I expect all they knew was that they had to do something – and there was only one thing that could be done -  they worshipped him.

Men do not walk on water. They knew this. And so everything had changed. The words came, I’m sure, after a moment of stunned silence that must have felt like eternity “Truly You are the Son of God.”

It must have been a mumble at first. You see, these words are no ordinary words; this was no ordinary act. On shore, back at home, these words could have cost them their life. Stoned to death for blasphemy. Talking about God in this way, talking about a man in this way. For most of the men on that boat, these words would cost them their life; even today, these words continue to cost men their lives, we think of Northern Iraq where ISIS have been committing the worst kinds of atrocities, filled with hate, and terrible anger. These words are important, they are, with no exaggeration, a matter of life and death; these words are a matter of Eternal life or Death. “Truly You are the Son of God.” We continue to use these words about Jesus, because, understand this: men do not walk on water.

What does this mean, and what are the apostles saying?

There is much conjecture among fans of Dan Brown, author of the DaVinci code, at what point the church started calling Jesus God, whether it was when the Nicene Creed was written, or when the church fixed the bible… these conversations make me laugh. It is there as clear as day, before your very eyes in the text, men do not walk on water.

Jesus is God.

There, I said it.

God revealed himself to the apostles there, on that stormy sea; on that windy night. God showed them His Face; and the face of God, the immortal one, the ancient of days, the all-powerful, and unchangeable God of all creation looked upon them with Jesus’ eyes of compassion, and the voice that commanded all of creation into being spoke to them saying “why did you doubt?”.

“why did you doubt”.

This isn’t a phrase that calls condemnation down upon the apostles as they knelt there, mouths ajar in awe. It was a phrase that stirred them, lifted them, and encouraged them to put their trust in Him, the Son of God.

God revealed Himself to the aspostles that day, just as he had done to Elijah 900 years before.

The stories resonate with a striking similarity: Verse 11 from the reading from Kings:

Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind;
 and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire,but the Lord was not in the fire; and
after the fire a still small voice.13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

First there is the wind, the storm, the raging nature – Elijah’s story tells us of the wind so strong it broke the rocks; our gospel reading tells us the wind lashed up billowing waves,  that tossed the boat to and fro.

God doesn’t choose to reveal himself through the storm

Then comes the fear; earthquake and fire in the Old Testament reading, fire that is unpredictable, and conjures up thoughts of the supernatural; the New Testament reading has a spoken fear “a ghost!” they cry, fearful of the dangerous and unpredictable spirit world.

God doesn’t chose to reveal himself through the fear.

Finally, verse 12 from Elijah’s story said there was a “still small voice” calling to the prophet; the same voice called from the lips of Jesus to the disciples that night on the sea. That voice still calls to us today.

Amen

Words.

The picture (below) has been doing the rounds on Facebook; it has inspired me to re-post (with edits):

Words have no intrinsic value. 

The arbitrary arrangement of letters and phonics, though steeped in rich etymological history, in the end mean nothing. Language exists not in the writing down, but rather, in the taking up.

When we write, and we do so often write, we veil our thoughts in heavy cloth. Some folk may, through eloquence or loquacity, craft more delicate silk to hold their ideas, but nonetheless, we can never truly know their intentions, their ideas, their mind. We can only know the outline of their thoughts. The shape underneath the drape of language remains to us merely a shape, we cannot know what lies beneath.

This is a problem, for People of The Book.

Yet, despite our ignorance, and despite our lack of seeing - we can expand our understanding.

We can, become acquainted with the author. We can grow to understand them, their motivation, desires, and passions; which can give us greater insight into what lies beneath the veil of words. Yet, our understanding of the author may be tainted, by our own prejudices, and expectations.

We must be humble, and subject ourselves to those who have known him longer. Not in hierarchy, but in love, earnestly seeking to understand those who understand. Those who understand must likewise seek those who understand more fully, and also those with fresh eyes. Together we can pool our senses, our thoughts, and our experience.

Scripture is therefore a community project.

(Best undertaken around a barbecue.)