Preparing for the Journey: Advent II, The Prophets

Advent 2012 (The Prophets)

Baruch 5:1-9

Philippians 1:3-11

Luke 3:1-6

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

It’s Christmas time again! Yes, it’s that time of year when, wherever you turn, you simply can’t escape the fact that it’s Christmas. Those lovely twinkling lights that are all around town at the moment. Seasonal window displays enticing us to part with our cash or maybe just put it on the credit card and pay it off later. The adverts on the TV helpfully reminding us to go to this store or the other to buy the latest “must have” presents. And of course the annual treat of turning the radio on and hearing Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas is You”. It’s all a wonderful reminder that we are in the Christmas season!

Except of course that we are not. Not yet! We may be forgiven for thinking that we are, given that everywhere we turn we see images or hear sounds that tell us otherwise. In the church’s calendar, this second week of Advent (not Christmas) focuses on the prophets. Advent is a time of preparation and anticipation, so perhaps to go mad with excitement just now is a bit premature. I know where I work at Sainsbury’s we have been in Christmas mode for some time now, and the looks I get from people when I try to explain that there is actually a distinction between Christmas and Advent are usually quite blank. The only Advent connection that many people make is opening the window on a usually very non-religious Advent calendar and devouring the enclosed chocolate.

 So, on to the prophets! Those giants of the Old Testament often perhaps seem so stern and foreboding! The popular image of the prophet is often that of a crazy eyed religious zealot making stern pronouncements in the name of a God who seems to be continually mad at the way people have moved away from him. There is the reputation that prophets sometimes have as a sort of divine fortune teller, a divinely inspired Russell Grant, yet to reduce their role to something not far removed from the astrology column of a newspaper does a great disservice to their real significance.

Today’s gospel reading speaks of “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Those words initially taken from Isaiah are speaking of course about John the Baptist whose role it was to declare the coming of Christ and get the people ready for the one who was to come.

Now I’m certainly no building engineer or architect but I’m pretty sure that this wonderful building we worship in today didn’t just appear overnight. Plans were drawn up, the land was made ready and foundations were dug. Each step in the process took time, and if any part of that process had been skipped over the actual building just would not have been able to take place. To just hastily erect a church (or any building) without a very thorough period of preparation would have simply been a recipe for disaster. This church and its community didn’t just come out of nowhere. Just as the church building required much preparation and work, so too did the community which meets here, which today is us.

  Generations of people have gone before us in this place and prepared the way. Their prayers and worship have filled this place. They have been baptised, married and buried from here. And we do the same today, but we could not do so in the same way if they had not already prepared the way before us.

What if Jesus had just suddenly appeared completely out of the blue? What if the Bible we have today consisted solely of the twenty seven books of the New Testament and nothing else? No historical context, no back-story, simply the sudden appearance of a baby in a manger who turns out to be the Son of God! How very different our story would look then. Sometimes that seems to be the way the whole Christmas story is presented to us, as a great spectacular event that seems to come out of nowhere. Yet the whole of the Bible in its many different ways prepares for, and leads up to, the coming of the one who, in the Incarnation, brings God into the messiness of our world.

Over generations the ground was laid and made ready until the time was right for the event that was to change the whole of creation.

I have to confess, I’m not the greatest in the world at waiting for things. There are times like going on holiday, my birthday yesterday.....and yes, even Christmas when I’m like a big kid and just want it to happen now! Occasions like these are among the few times that even now I actually bounce out of bed in the morning at stupid o’clock full of excitement and wanting it to happen now. Loathe sometimes as I may be to admit it, the build-up, preparation and anticipation is all part of what makes these times so special. They don’t just suddenly appear as isolated moments in our life.

Here in this Second Week of Advent we come together not simply as a group of individuals, but as a community. A community on a shared journey of wonder and discovery as we gradually get closer to the moment when God came and dwelt amongst us, sharing our humanity and inviting us to be partakers of his divinity, something we will shortly experience a we meet with Him in the Eucharist.

 Let us not rush that journey. When all around us seem to be frantically looking for instant satisfaction, let us take a moment to slow down and savour this time of waiting. Step away, even if it is only for a few minutes each day from the busyness of our everyday life and be still with our Lord.

 A time of reflection, of anticipation. A time of joy.....and yes, of gradual excitement. Events such as the Beach Hut Advent Calendar on Hove sea-front over the next few weeks are an excellent opportunity to present the Advent story as one of looking forward with hope to our Lord’s coming. May those who visit the beach huts come away with a sense of wonder at the message they hear.

As John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ so let us also prepare ourselves. Let us prepare ourselves to welcome the one who comes to be part of our world and our lives in all its messiness. The crib has gone up and we await His arrival.

If you are visiting us today we invite you to join us over the next few weeks (and maybe beyond) as we make that journey through Advent and towards Christmas together.

May we all in these coming weeks have that sense of awe and wonder as God reaches out and invites us ALL to see and partake of his salvation.

+ In the name of God, Father and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

 

Superhero's and Saints

Superhero’s and Saints

To help us celebrate All Saints Day (even though we are a few days late) some of the children have dressed up as their favourite saints. (Ask children to come to the front so that the grown ups can see their fantastic costumes). What saints have they come as?

When I was thinking about what to say today it came to me that in a way the saints are actually quite similar to Superhero’s. I’m sure that when they were younger lots of the grown-ups here had a favourite Superhero, maybe that they read about in a comic or watched on TV or at the cinema.

 Superhero’s can usually do some pretty amazing things, some can fly, or jump over huge walls, or see through solid objects, or are incredibly strong. But what they all have in common is that they have these amazing powers so that they can protect people from bad things and keep everybody safe.

Can you think of any Superhero’s? Maybe Batman, Spiderman, Superman or even Wonder-Woman? It might actually be somebody completely different altogether! What is it that you like or admire about them? Saturday morning TV used to be great fun watching the good guys always winning over the bad guys.

 A hero is someone we can look up to and admire because they have done something really good and special. And we admire them because we would like to be like them in some way. We all have people who we look up to and admire. Sometimes it might be a pop star or a favourite footballer or even a teacher at school.

We remember today those people who in all the history of the church have sometimes done some really amazing things, and these are the Saints. Sometimes they were put in prison or even tortured for what they believed. A lot of them have stories of miracles that happened because of their faith in God. And these Saints are a bit like the Superhero’s of the church! They are often looked up to and admired because they are seen to be especially holy and close to God.

But the interesting thing about All Saints Day is that is a day for ALL the saints and not just the well-known ones like St George. Even those saints who have been long forgotten or who maybe people don’t think are as important as the more famous ones are remembered today. It’s easy to remember the ones that we all know, but they all have something which we can learn from and help us in our journey with God.

The church also teaches that ALL Christians are saints in some way. That’s you and me, from the very youngest to the oldest! Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t very often feel like a saint, and those who know me best would say that I don’t always act like a saint.

But I do try my best even if I don’t always manage it. And that’s all any of us can do really, try our best to follow the example of the Saints who have lived and died before us. Probably most of us won’t make it to being a Superhero saint, but we are all part of the same family of God and we are all loved and cared for in just the same way as they are.

So in that sense today is a day for all of us too, as we join together with our brother and sister saints and remember that we all play a part in the family of God. So let us go out from here today with a real sense of our calling as saints in the church of God.

AMEN

The Gospel of Servanthood

The Gospel of Servanthood (21^st October 2012)

Isaiah 53:4-12

Hebrews 5:1-10

Mark 10:35-45

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I wonder how many of you have been making a regular date these last few Sunday evenings with Downton Abbey. I suspect quite a few. We are still making our way through the DVD of series two, but have faithfully set the record button to make sure we don’t miss any of the current episodes. There is an appetite for period dramas that tell us something about what life may have been like for the rich and powerful, as well as for those who served them and catered for their every need. Of course it is all made in a very entertaining, stylised way for the TV, so there is bound to be some artistic licence taken with the exact details of life both “Upstairs and Downstairs”.

In a society that still operated very much under a relatively well defined social and class structure there was a fairly recognisable distinction between the so-called “ruling class” and those who served them. A well-ordered society depended upon the observance of an often complex series of social rules and etiquette, where everyone knew their place and stayed there. Mustn’t upset the order of things!

Well, as I’m sure we all know by now, Jesus wasn’t one for sticking strictly to the way things were “meant” to be. A read through the gospels show him taking the expectations that were placed upon him by society and turning them completely upside down. Conforming to the “norm” wasn’t exactly his strong suit!

 I preached a few weeks ago on ambition and greatness, and how true greatness lay not in a self-regarding race to the top, trying constantly to be better or more successful. But rather it is in following the example of Jesus, and in some sense allowing Jesus to be shown though us…….what we say and what we do. And, what we see in our gospel reading this morning is an excellent example of this.

We have James and John, two of his closest confidantes, approaching Jesus and almost treating him as a kind of genie of the lamp, ready to grant their wishes with his great benevolence.  “Just say the word Jesus and one of us will sit at your right hand and the other at your left……..we want to share your glory with you”.

 Their eagerness to receive such prominence shows how very little they knew or understood what discipleship was really all about. The contrast between being served and being a servant is quite remarkable, and at this moment in time they seem all too keen to lap up the honour and prestige that they thought was their due reward.

The path of discipleship which lay ahead of them was not one of ambition or personal gain. As Jesus replies to them, they really didn’t have a clue what it is they were asking! “The cup that I drink you will drink and the baptism with which I am baptised, you will also be baptised; but to sit at my right hand or my left is not mine to grant, but is for those for whom it has been prepared” (Mk 10:39-40). He uses the two images of a cup and baptism as metaphors for the suffering and death he will one day face, and we hear James and John eagerly replying to him “oh yes, we can do that”. Yet we know that when the time came they, along with the rest of the disciples would flee and abandon him……so much then for their promise to stand alongside him in his moment of need!

And in fact we see later in Mark’s gospel, during the moment of his crucifixion, a point seems to be made about the two criminals executed with him……..one on his right and one on his left, to whom Jesus promised would join him in paradise. Even in death Jesus came alongside those who society despised, not perhaps the ones who thought they deserved a place with him, but those who knew they didn’t!

 We get a powerful reminder of what being a servant actually meant for Jesus in our reading from Isaiah in what is often called “The Song of the Suffering Servant”, and which is traditionally believed to portray Jesus not as some great all-conquering warrior king, but instead as one who became despised and broken just as many of those he came to serve were each in their own way despised and broken.

 This was the path he was offering James and John when they had their eyes fixed so firmly upon their own glory. They had this idea that greatness was somehow all about having power and authority over others, while the greatness which Jesus spoke of came from being a servant to others. The path that he trod was one which they too had to journey down if they were to truly know what it was to be his disciples. There was to be no easy route or VIP pass that would somehow get them ahead of all the others.

 And we see such sacrificial self-giving service in the name of Jesus in many contemporary saints and heroes of the faith. In Mother Theresa carrying out her work among the destitute, even when she herself doubted her own faith. In Maximillian Kolbe as he offered to take the place of a fellow prisoner about to be executed in a Nazi concentration camp. In Corrie ten Boom who sheltered and protected Jews during the war with no regard for her own safety. Their service came not from a sense of duty, but out of a deep sense of love for God and love for their fellow human beings.

And ok most of us may not be placed in such extreme situations during our lifetime, but we are each of us called to serve with the same kind of attitude. We are called to serve not just as individuals to other individuals (though that is of course important in itself), but we are called as the church to serve the community in which we find ourselves.

The call in this instance is not a call to go out and convert it is simply a call to go out and serve. And it’s not always easy, and it does sometimes feel awkward and difficult……..yet we are called to do it anyway. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve ALL who came to him, without exception or discrimination. And we as the church, as his body here on earth are called to do likewise.

 As we sang a few moments ago during the gospel hymn:

“So let us learn how to serve, and in our lives enthrone him. Each other’s needs to prefer, for it is Christ we’re serving”.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

 

 

Ambition and True Greatness

Jeremiah  11:18-20

James 3:13-4:3 & 7-8a

Mark 9:30-37

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ambition!

It’s something which we all probably experienced at some stage in our lives. Most of us would quite likely have harboured childhood ambitions in our younger days……..some more realistic and attainable than others I’m sure! The days are long gone when little boys wanted nothing more to be an engine driver or a footballer and little girls had dreams of becoming a nurse or some kind of fairy-tale princess (if those days ever really existed in the first place).

I loved books as a child (I still do), and most evenings after school would see me heading to my local library where I would frequently stay until it closed. Thus were the seeds sown for my own childhood ambition to become a librarian. Ok, perhaps not the most glamorous or exciting thing in the world and in the end it wasn’t to happen, but at that time it was all I really wanted to be.

 I imagine if we went round this congregation and each of us shared our ambitions, our hopes and our dreams, we would all have our own particular tale to tell. Of goals that have been reached, or fallen by the wayside, or perhaps that we are still striving towards. Sometimes it seems that the greatest ambition for many is to be “famous”. Reality TV has tapped into and nurtured a desire for many to be famous for no other reason than its own sake. People avidly follow those on social networks who are famous for being famous. The infamous Andy Warhol quote about everybody being famous for fifteen minutes is one that many seem to aspire to at times.

Our gospel reading this morning sees the disciples behaving in a way that I’m sure is unfortunately familiar to many of us, fighting and bickering amongst themselves as they jostle for the number one spot! Their own ambition seems to be pretty clear at this point, who amongst them was the greatest?

 They had just been standing alongside Jesus as he experienced the transfiguration, that moment when Jesus was briefly revealed to them in all his glory as the Son of God. They had seen him heal a young boy apparently possessed by an evil spirit and witnessed many other miracles, and after all this all that they could think of was who was the greatest! It’s almost as though they are caught up in some kind of First Century reality TV show, each of them vying with the others in the popularity stakes……….keeping one eye on Jesus and the other on their own prospects, their own personal ambition.

These were the twelve, who spent the most time with Jesus, living, walking, talking, working with him for three years, and one day, as they’re walking along with Jesus, they indulge in this kind of Christian of the Year award. Arguing with one another about who was the greatest. Not the greatest mathematician, or the greatest footballer, but who is the “greatest” disciple!

You can just imagine them walking along, Jesus out in front leading his disciples towards Capernaum (and ultimately on his way to Jerusalem), and the disciples ‘discussing’ amongst themselves, trying to show how they are greater than each other. Each convinced that they are somehow a better disciple than the one next to them. Jesus, having to listen to all this must have shaken his head in despair. How could they have got it all so wrong? How could their priorities have moved so far from the one who they followed?

It’s not too difficult I guess for us to understand perhaps a little of where they were coming from. Throughout life we are told we should constantly aim to be the “best”, never mind if that means sometimes stepping on other people or shoving them out of the way to get to where we think we ought to be. We will somehow get to the top in whatever area of life we happen to choose, perhaps in our career or in our personal life, and if other people lose out or get left behind………well that’s a shame, can’t be helped!

And yet, the path to greatness lay not in their self-praise or their elbowing one another out of the way in their quest to be top dog. True greatness lay in emulating and following the example of the one who they had already recognised as the Son of God. Greatness is in the laying down of self and personal ambition. We hear one of Jesus’s occasionally puzzling and seemingly contradictory statements as he says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mk 9:35). On the face of it, just another of his cryptic sayings, yet it was a lesson that was so vital for the disciples to understand.

 So much of what Jesus stood for seemed to contradict and fly in the face of what was the prevailing attitude of the day. It is easy to forget sometimes in our often comfortable established church just how radically different the message he brought was to those who were hearing it for the first time. And indeed how radically different it is to the experiences of many today, both inside and outside the church.

He came, not as some great all conquering hero, but as the one who washed the feet of his disciples. He may have been the Son of God, but he was also the servant of all who came to him. For Jesus it was not about being put on some kind of unreachable pedestal where he could keep a distance from those whom society deemed unworthy. It was about being in the middle of an often messy humanity, loving, sharing with and serving people whoever they were in their situations.

 There is a vulnerability in being a servant. In opening up to others we open ourselves up to the possibility of being abused or taken advantage of, yet that should be no reason not to reach out to those in need. In many ways it is completely counter-cultural to the way we are conditioned to think about ourselves today. To put others ahead of ourselves and at their service…..this is the way of the cross! Jesus knew full well what it was that lay ahead of him as he said, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again” (Mark 5:31), and this is something that of course we see indicated also in our reading from Jeremiah.

 In his final words of our gospel passage Jesus talks of welcoming and serving even the smallest child. ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me but him who sent me.’ There’s a lot of welcoming there, but basically whatever we do in Jesus’ name - whatever we do for him, all our acts of service, all our acts of welcome - when we serve others (like this child, like someone who needs our help, like anyone), it’s as if we’re serving Jesus himself - but it goes further than that, for in welcoming Jesus we welcome God himself.

So may we embrace the vulnerability of the cross and put aside our own ego and ambition as we seek to love God and love one another, and serve as he came to serve.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

 

 

 

Feeding upon the living bread!

Proverbs 9:1-6

Ephesians 5:15-20

John 6:51-58

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

If you have been paying attention to the gospel reading these past few weeks (and I’m sure you all have), then you might be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu, a feeling that perhaps we have been here before! The last few weeks of John’s gospel have spoken to us of bread, this week we hear once again about bread, and next week, once more we have a gospel reading from John about (yes, you’ve probably guessed by now) bread!

There seems to be something about the importance of bread and its link with Jesus that the writer of John’s gospel is determined to impress upon the minds of his readers. All of these readings actually form a continuous narrative as chapter 6 of John’s gospel, which as you may recall, began a few weeks ago with the feeding of the five thousand with loaves and fishes.

Unlike in the other three gospels, John’s gospel does not highlight a specific event that may be said to be the institution of the Eucharist. This long stretch of readings making the link between Jesus and the all-important bread is John’s equivalent, his way of pointing us towards what we have come to know as the Eucharist.

Bread has of course been used by cultures around the world for thousands of years to symbolise that which nourishes and sustains life. Societies have, for millennia, looked upon bread in some form or another as a staple of daily living. Bread was a source of food available to all, whether rich or poor, and here we have in today’s gospel Jesus himself making the most remarkable claim. "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51). Not only is he offering life-giving bread to all who will take it, but he says that HE HIMSELF is that bread which is given for the life of the world.

In many restaurants when dining out it is customary to be presented with a bowl or plate of bread at the beginning of the meal along with some oil and vinegar for dipping. This is usually not a dish to be eaten alone, but rather it is to be shared amongst the gathered company and enjoyed as a prelude to the main meal. Within the context of our gathering together this morning and every Sunday morning, as well as during the week, our partaking of the bread and wine is no prelude to the main event…….it IS the main event.

However each of us may understand the mystery of what happens during the Eucharist; Jesus himself is present in the bread and wine in a very real way, and he offers himself to each one of us. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them” (Jn 5:56). The very ordinariness of the bread and wine is somehow transformed into something that is quite extraordinary and it is able to provide us with a nourishment that goes far beyond its physical qualities.

 And we are invited to come not only as individuals but also as part of a community, and that community is wider than St George’s Church or the Church of England. That community is the people we live and work amongst, it is the people we see sometimes on the TV who seem to have so little, it is those who sometimes we cross the road to avoid! As I have mentioned from here before none of us exists in complete isolation, for most of us we are formed and shaped by the various communities that each of us is a part of. A sense of community, of belonging, goes to the very heart of who we are.

The prayer at the end of our service is one that asks that we be sent out in the power of the Spirit to live and work to God’s praise and glory. We who have been fed by Christ are to take Christ beyond these walls, to share and to show something of Christ to others. We are called upon not to keep the feast to ourselves but to invite others to the table at which we have eaten.

 There is nothing magic in what happens at the Eucharist, we do not suddenly become transformed into super-Christians, our problems do not just disappear. Yet Jesus freely offers himself to us and to the world, and we are called upon to play our own role in this great drama.

May he who came to share in our humanity, allow us to share in his divinity.

+ In the name of God, Father and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

Reaching to the One Who First reaches Out To Us

Mark 5:21-43

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sometimes it may seem from reading the gospels that the life of Jesus consisted of nothing more than producing miracles on demand. We are so familiar with the accounts of Jesus turning water into wine, feeding the five thousand, even his own resurrection that it can be easy to fall into thinking that his every waking moment was spent thinking up the next “spectacular” which would “wow” the crowds as though he was some kind of divinely inspired David Blaine. Of course there was so much more to his life and mission than performing endless miracles. He demonstrated a new way to live, and through his life, death and resurrection he bridged the gulf between humanity and God.

In today’s gospel reading we read of two very distinct miracles, each focused upon very different people. In the first instance we read of Jairus, a man who had a certain level of prestige and influence within the community, whose daughter is very near to death. Caring nothing about how it may look to others, he throws himself upon Jesus, pleading with him to come and heal the girl. While en route to the house where the girl was lying, somebody else who was in great need also saw him. This woman who had been bleeding did not have the same social standing as Jairus, she was just a woman……how could she? She does not even have the simple dignity of being known by her name! She simply reached out for a brief touch of Jesus clothes, probably out of sheer desperation! Not for her any great expectation! And the response of Jesus? “Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace”. (Mk 5:34) Continuing his journey to the house of Jairus where his daughter lies gravely ill, Jesus is met by the scepticism of Jairus’s’ friends and neighbours. The girl is dead…..why bother? And once again, we see the response of Jesus, this time to Jairus, “Do not fear, only believe.” (Mk 5:36)

In both of these instances we see two very different people come to Jesus when they have absolutely nowhere else they can turn. Two people from completely opposing backgrounds who each see in Jesus someone who can somehow meet their deepest needs. It wasn’t just their bodies that were being healed, it was their spirits too.  Though on the face of it this story might seem to be just another account of Jesus the miracle worker, I believe that it goes beyond that. It is not primarily a story about healing, though that is perhaps the most visible thing to focus upon. The real point to the story is found I think in Jesus’s response to these two people as they each come to him in their brokenness.

He sees beyond the power and privilege of Jairus, and he sees beyond the lowly status of the frightened woman. In each of them there is a recognition that although they may be powerless to do anything about their respective situations, Jesus certainly was not. And Jesus acknowledges this as he commends and encourages their faith in him. It was their faith, not their social standing that tapped them into the power of God and ended up making such a huge difference to their lives.

We live in a world where faith is often looked down upon or mis-interpreted. We are encouraged to be strong and independent, stand on our own two feet and to look after number one first! To rely upon others is very often seen as a sign of weakness. To rely upon God is quite often looked upon today with derision and pity.  Faith often seems to be reduced to the superficial, almost superstitious level of making sure we have enough money in the bank for a rainy day, then somehow we will be ok.

To have faith is to acknowledge our own brokenness. To recognise that by ourselves we can do nothing. To open ourselves up to being vulnerable. Both Jairus and the woman who was bleeding were in their own ways able to do just that. They reached out to Jesus and he touched their lives in a very real way.

 Sometimes it seems that we over-complicate the Christian faith. We use obscure theological language as we try to grasp what it means to be a follower of Christ.  We can hide behind the liturgy of what we do on a Sunday and use it as a sort of buffer…..a comfort zone! Yet it seems to me that beyond the words, and beyond the liturgy it really is quite simple. God through Jesus meets with each of us at the point of our need…….he certainly does that in the gospel reading.

And we come today, as we do every Sunday to share in the bread and the wine, the body and the blood of Jesus. We come with our busy lives and our vulnerabilities and we reach out to him as he offers himself to us. And whatever our understanding of the Eucharist may be, we are touched by our Lord in a way that is no less real than it was for Jairus and the woman. We reach out to him in faith; perhaps we don’t always have great expectations. Often maybe we feel less than worthy, yet we reach out anyway, and the response of Jesus is that he always, always reaches back to us!

So as we come, each with our own different backgrounds and concerns, may we look to the example of both Jairus and the woman as they met with the one with whom we meet today. And may we share the faith they had in reaching out to the one who reaches out to us.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

Sermon for Healing and Wholeness

2 Kings 20:1-5

Mark 1:29-34

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

This evening’s service is an opportunity to pray for healing and wholeness, for ourselves, for each other, our family and friends, and for the world. Of course it’s possible to do that at any time and  in any place, but occasions like tonight give a particular focus to our faith in a God who heals, restores, refreshes, and mends what is broken – all of which we all need.  As we come together we recognise that although our lives may be very different, and we each have different concerns, our need is the same, to be made whole by God.

Healing can come of course in many different forms, and very often not in the way that we may have expected or prayed for. There are many, many passages in the Bible that speak to us of healing and wholeness. It is a thread that runs throughout the entirety of humanity’s interaction with God. The Old Testament is full of examples of God’s unending love and care for his people…….very often in the face of stubbornness or even outright disbelief. And there is Jesus, who in the gospels, reaches out to the broken and the hurting, demonstrating in a very real way what it means to offer the unconditional love of God to all, reaching out to people’s bodies and spirits.

In our gospel reading we read of Jesus being sought out by those in need of healing. His reputation as a healer had spread so much that people brought their family and friends to simply receive a touch from him. To be touched by Jesus was to be touched by God! I wonder what was going through the minds of those who were in such need. For many of them coming to Jesus was probably their last resort. Shunned by their communities for whom sickness was a sign of God’s disfavour, they came from miles around to a man who responds to them with such love and compassion that they had probably never experienced before.

It wasn’t just their bodies that were being healed, it was their spirits too. Something deep inside them cried out for his touch. And we see something similar in our Old Testament reading from 2 Kings as Hezekiah is facing death and he cries out to the Lord. In response to his cries God speaks to him through the prophet Isaiah, “I have heard your prayer, and seen your tears, and will heal you” (2 Kings 20:5).

The desire for healing and wholeness is one of the most fundamental needs we have. We wish it for ourselves and for those we love and care for, but what we actually mean when we seek it? Of course it would be wonderful if every time we prayed for somebody we know who is sick we could see visible results. In reality we must recognise that is not what always happens. What we pray for and what we receive are not always the same thing. I’m reminded of the passage in Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8). This passage comes in the middle of an invitation to ALL who are thirsty to come and drink from the provision of God. A God, who, although his ways are in so many ways are hidden from us, has revealed his love for us through the incarnation of his Son. Though we may not always understand the ways of the Lord we can still reach out and be assured of his presence with us, guiding us and walking alongside us.

There is the old story I’m sure that some of you will know by heart of the man who was walking along the beach with Jesus, and for most of the journey there was the two sets of footprints, his own and those of Jesus. From time to time he noticed only one set of footprints, and this always seemed to be when he was feeling at his absolute lowest ebb. Thinking that maybe God had abandoned him he calls out, “Where were you in those times God?” The response he receives, which again, I’m sure you have probably heard before is that “When you see only the one set of footprints in the sand, it was then that I picked you up and carried you”

It is an old story and it is a familiar one, yet it is a story that rings true. Yes, there may be times when people are be miraculously healed of some life-threatening illness, and I believe that we do ourselves and God a dis-service to discount this. However this is the exception rather than the rule. Even in the gospels which are full of accounts of healings they were considered so exceptional that they were recorded by the writers as something so very out of the ordinary.

We need to recognise that our physical bodies do wear out, and that this is all part of the natural cycle of life and death for us all. Allowing ourselves and others the space to deal with this in ways that are most appropriate for us is part of the healing process. There comes a time for all of us when our final healing will be to rest in the presence of the one who first loved us.

For many of us and for those who we love and care for, when we pray in the words of the Lord’s Prayer for “thy will be done” we are acknowledging that whatever our own often mixed feelings and emotions might be telling us, ultimately we are in the care of our loving God, being carried, and often patched up and mended in ways that perhaps we didn’t expect.

There will be the opportunity in a short while for those who may wish to receive the anointing of oil as a sign of God’s power and presence in our lives, and we shall also remember those whose names are currently on our prayer list. Sometimes perhaps, we can fall into the rut of just hearing the same names week after week and not always giving them our full attention, yet each name is an individual person, loved and cared for by somebody in our church family, and loved and cared for by God.

So let us reach out to the one who first reaches out to us and who desires to make us whole and wonderful in his sight.

+In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

Mission and Pentecost

Mission Sermon FMM12

Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8:22-27 & John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Mission for many of us may seem to be a fairly daunting prospect! Something that is perhaps best left to the professionals!  What are the first images that come to mind when you think of the word “mission”? Perhaps you place it very firmly in the past as you think about some of the great pioneer missionaries of the nineteenth century, such as Livingstone or Florence Nightingale as they went into often uncharted territory seeking to improve social conditions as well as proclaim the gospel. Maybe the first thing that comes to mind is something like a huge evangelistic Billy Graham style revival meeting! As a fourteen year old in 1984 I had the privilege of being a part of Mission England, as I made my first real acknowledgement of faith in just such a setting.  I know that certainly for myself, four years on from that experience, when I was eighteen years old, and a student at an evangelical Methodist Bible College, much of my time there was spent either on, or preparing to go on periods of “mission” in various parts of the  UK. There we would take school assemblies, hold evangelistic events in local cafes, sometimes knock on doors trying to talk to people about Jesus, or stand on a beach attempting to draw a crowd with my dodgy efforts at drawing a Rolf Harris style sketchboard, while at the same time giving my testimony. Looking back at it now, over half my lifetime away, it was a fantastic experience, and is something that I have no regrets at all in doing, being, as it was, my first real experience of anything to do with mission.

Today here at St George’s, and around the world, we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, considered by some to be the birth of the church. The moment when the Holy Spirit came upon the infant church and empowered it to go out and declare the gospel to ALL nations! Our reading from Acts was the probably the first major act of mission the disciples had engaged in after the death and resurrection of Jesus. They are standing in the upper room, no doubt still filled with uncertainty and fear about what lies ahead for them, when we are told the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they receive the ability to communicate the gospel to the crowds in a way that those people filling the streets of Jerusalem were able to understand. They become so emboldened with the ability to reach out to the people of Jerusalem, that that moment in time becomes a great turning point in the early days of the church.

The disciples receive the promise of the Holy Spirit from Jesus himself as he prepares them for when he will no longer be physically with them. He speaks in John’s gospel of the “Advocate”, the Spirit of truth, who will point towards Jesus and the Father. When he is no longer with them, the point he is making is that they will not be left all alone, floundering around, not knowing what to do. The work that Jesus began will be continued by the Holy Spirit, who will come upon the disciples and guide them into all truth.

So here we are then, at Pentecost, gathered perhaps with the disciples in our own metaphorical “Upper Room” here at St George’s, wondering “what on earth is going to happen today”. Of course most, if not all of you will be aware that today we also mark Sea Sunday and this afternoon down at the Marina there will be a group of us from St George’s, and other churches in the city too, including Father Andrew and Bishop Mark taking part in a service in which thanks will be given for the links we have with the sea, those who work on it and a blessing will be prayed over the boat that has been built for the cultural Olympics and is sailing along the South Coast linking communities and sharing their stories.

The boat project is all about peoples stories and sharing those stories with one another. It is a boat built from wood that has been donated from many different sources. Pieces of wood from the old West Pier, wood from Hastings Pier, even apparently a piece of wood from a guitar that belonged to Jimmy Hendrix. What every piece of donated wood has in common though, is that it has a story to tell, and this floating story is travelling along the coast connecting with people in a way that sometimes the church might envy. People are drawn to it, perhaps out of idle curiosity or perhaps because they have a sense of it being part of a much greater whole……the upcoming Olympics, and they want to somehow be a part of that themselves.

As I mentioned a moment ago, the church, THIS church will have a visible presence down there this afternoon……not least because we are the parish church. And we go there because we believe that we have something to offer. We go not in the name of St George’s Church or even the Church of England, but we go in the name of the One who sent the Holy Spirit upon those first disciples at Pentecost. And I don’t believe that we go there primarily looking to convert people. We go to the Marina this afternoon to share in the stories of the communities that have helped build the boat, to hopefully listen and be part of the ongoing stories of those who live and work in the Marina, and yes (here comes the scary bit) to share something of our own story with them.

Maybe it doesn’t sound very Anglican; perhaps for some of us it may be a little too evangelical for comfort. It’s not perhaps the way we are used to doing things at St George’s. It is all too easy sometimes to stay inside our own comfort zone, to keep with what we are familiar with. There are times when like the disciples (of which we are the 21st Century Kemptown version) we need to think about going beyond the safety and comfort of our own four walls to share with others what we consider to be the greatest story ever told……that of God’s undiluted, absolute love for ALL. And we do so, particularly on this Day of Pentecost not simply in our own strength, but in the strength of the Spirit who guides into all truth. Of course, we don’t just do that with words. Our mission is also hopefully evident in our lives, in who we are and what we do. When we feed the hungry, reach out to the homeless or offer support to someone in need, we are in a very real way also offering Christ to them. Don’t think that mission is only something for the extrovert and outgoing to do or that it is something that needs special training. It’s not about being clever with words and knowing complicated theological language. Mission is simply about reaching out and being there wherever people are and offering them the love of Jesus. Maybe for you that will come in the form of simply sitting with someone and listening to their story. Read the gospels and you will see many accounts of Jesus himself doing just that!

So this afternoon, come down to the Marina with us. Simply be there, be a part of other people’s stories and maybe allow them to be part of yours, as we share what it is for us all to be part of the bigger story…..the story that the disciples were able to proclaim with confidence on that Day of Pentecost.

AMEN

Baptised and loved as God's children!

Acts 3:12-19, 1 John 3:1-7 & Luke 24:36-48

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

We heard last week from Father Peter of the complete amazement of the disciples at the sudden re-appearance of Jesus - an understandable reaction!  We heard also of Thomas, who in his very human way found the whole situation just too much to take in, and had the same kind of doubts that many of us probably would have had…….needing to see and hold Jesus for himself before he was able to believe that it was really happening.

In our reading today from Luke’s gospel Jesus once again appears to the disciples. Perhaps to say that he “appears” is actually pretty inadequate, conjuring up, as it may, an image of smoke and mirrors, an illusion……nothing more than a magic trick! Yet here he is, right in front of them (they are probably rooted to the spot scared stiff), telling them to reach out and touch the reality in front of them. Touch and see his hands and feet. This was no illusion……Jesus was right there, standing before them. The same Jesus who only a few days before had endured the most horrendous torture and execution was now standing with his disciples, speaking and sharing a meal with them. These were not the actions of a ghost or the result of the disciple’s imaginations!

 In the confusion of that room where they were gathered, Jesus reminds them once again that everything that had happened (and that continues to happen) is in fulfilment of scripture. His death and resurrection were not in vain, there was a divine purpose to all that was happening. A purpose that would bring about repentance and forgiveness and ultimately reconcile humanity to God.

Today we celebrate with Louis and his family as we welcome him into the church family. As promises are made on his behalf he becomes a child of God. As our second reading from the First Letter of John says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are” (1 Jn 3:1). We add our support and prayers to those of his parents and Godparents as he begins his journey of faith through baptism.

And of course, through baptism we are all children of God! It has been said many times from this pulpit, that the love of God for each of us is so completely and absolutely unlimited in its depth that we can barely comprehend it.  And we are called children of God, not simply because we woke up one morning and decided on a whim to come along to church……we are called children of God because he first loved us and draws us to himself. That love is an unconditional love!

We are not always understood by those outside the church, sometimes perhaps, we don’t even fully understand ourselves. And like children there are times when we sometimes fight and argue, but none of that takes away the love of God for us. We are called not only to stand with and support one another, but also to walk alongside. As we are often told by Father Andrew…..take a look around you, see who is sitting in front or behind you. It is these people who we are united to in our own baptism; it is these people who are our sisters and brothers in the family of Christ. We walk this journey of discovery together. It is through our baptism that we symbolically bury our old sinful self and are raised up into our new life in Jesus. We become reconciled to the one who created and loves us, and we are called not to keep that love for ourselves, but to proclaim it from the rooftops that it is available to all.

Yet sometimes perhaps, going back to the disciples in the room, confused and not really understanding what was going on, we too are full of doubts and insecurities. It’s natural enough to want to be in control of things and fully understand what is going on…..but at that moment in time that simply wasn’t happening for the disciples. This was a group of people who had spent the last few years following their Lord. They had lived with and supported one another, at times they had disagreed and agued with one another. But at the end of the day this group of stalwart disciples was momentarily thrown into complete confusion and fear by the reappearance of the Lord they thought was dead!

 This was a whole new experience for them that completely defied everything that common sense and logic told them. Even when they reached out and touched Jesus they weren’t fully convinced he was real until he ate with them. As on so many other occasions Jesus used the opportunity of a shared meal to help them understand the reality of what was in front of their eyes.

May we, as we support Louis in his baptism, and perhaps recall our own baptismal promises, know more fully the reality of what it is to be children of God. May we allow his love to overcome our own doubts and insecurities, and may we each become vessels by which his love is poured out to others.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

What is the Value of Studying a Gospel in its Own Right?

This essay intends to discuss the importance of studying a gospel in its own right, looking particularly at Matthew’s Gospel. When the four gospels are examined together it is easy to see how they both compliment and contradict each other. It is only when reading each gospel in depth on its own terms that it is possible to appreciate what it is that makes a particular gospel distinctive. Each gospel writer had his own particular emphasis and audience in mind when it was being written.

Matthew’s gospel, despite being the first of the four gospels in the New Testament is unlikely to have been the first one actually written (most modern scholars give that distinction to Mark’s gospel). Reading through Matthew’s gospel one quickly becomes aware of the “Jewish flavour” to the writing, moreso than in any of the other three gospels. While the other gospels tend to be more outreaching in their scope, Matthew is more concerned with reaching the Jewish audience of the day. This theory is supported when one sees that the author makes more extensive use of the Old Testament than the other gospel writers in his quest to convince the Jews of the validity of Jesus as the promised Messiah. The author’s intention could be summed up by his quote of Jesus, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matt 5:17). The law (of Moses) was a rule of life and relationship with God that was unique to the people of Israel. For Jesus to say that he was the fulfillment of the law would make sense at that time only in a Jewish context, something that the immediate audience of the gospel would be able to understand.

Assuming that Mark’s gospel was the first to be written, most modern scholars accept the theory that much of Matthew (and indeed Luke) was based upon material taken from Mark. Matthew’s gospel however is around 50 percent longer than Mark’s, so it is apparent that the author uses material that was not available to the writer of Mark. Some of this material is shared by Luke and is known as “Q”. Brown states, “Mark had been designed to make Jesus intelligible to a Gentile audience; and Matthew, in order to serve a community that was becoming more and more Gentile, found Mark a useful framework into which to incorporate Q, a very Jewish collection of Jesus’ teaching.” Even when recounting the same events Matthew is generally shorter than Mark, using Mark more as a frame on which to hang his own take on the proceedings, and going on to add material such as the genealogy and infancy storylines in a way that would make it more relevant to his target audience.

Given that the Old Testament depicts the Jewish people as God’s “chosen people”, it is important to understand something of the cultural and religious background. Matthew’s gospel begins by tracing the lineage of Jesus through David, back to Abraham. This account, while not being strictly accurate is intended to show the reader the pedigree of Jesus as the Messiah, by linking him through the generations to the great prophets and kings of Israel.

Jewish identity was important to the target audience in those days in much the same way as it is in modern day Israel, and this emphasis on Jesus’ Jewish roots has a twofold effect. Firstly, as we have seen, it makes visible the historical continuation of Jesus with those who have gone before him, something that was of great importance to the original readers of the gospel. Secondly, it allows readers of subsequent generations (including our own) a greater insight into the Jewish background of Jesus and the context out of which he came, something which is not presented quite as prominently in the other gospels.

One of the central themes found in the gospel is that of Jesus as teacher. This brings us back to Jesus’ claim to fulfill rather than destroy the law. He was not there to bring down the great teachings of the Old Testament prophets, but rather to bring those teachings to completion. Matthew groups the teaching of Jesus into five main sections (chapters 5-7; 10; 13; 18 and 24-25). The most well known of these teaching sessions is the “Sermon on the Mount” (ch 5-7) and echoes the time Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai.

Johnson makes the link between Jesus and Torah in Matthew. Torah (Law) was the central rule of living that governed every aspect of the life for the observant Jew. He speaks of the eternal nature of Torah and how “Taking upon oneself the observance of Torah was to “take on the yoke of the kingdom of heaven” ” . Because to Matthew’s audience every aspect of life was viewed in terms of how it related to Torah it became necessary to come to a new understanding of the Law. Johnson argues that this “new understanding” is found in Jesus. He goes on to describe Jesus as “Teacher of Torah, Fulfillment of Torah, and the Personification of Torah” . He is portrayed throughout the gospel as a great teacher as he holds his lengthy discourses, and rather than doing away with what has been passed down in Torah he is shown to radically re-interpret it. The Sermon on the Mount shows a number of examples of Jesus re-interpreting the law. Two notable instances are in chapter five, verses 38-39 and 43-44, where Jesus speaks about a new attitude towards ones enemy. It is an attitude of love and selflessness, rather than one that seeks vengeance. In this sense he is teaching a new way of life that reaches beyond the Torah as originally received.

He becomes in Matthew, not only the “teacher”, but also the “fulfillment” of the law. Matthew’s genealogical account at the very beginning of his gospel emphasizes the long and honourable line of ancestors culminating in announcing Jesus as the Messiah (Matt 1:16). The author then goes on in the gospel on numerous occasions to speak of Jesus in terms of “fulfillment” of various Old Testament prophecies, where the words of the prophets are applied to Jesus in order to show the work of God through him. Such “fulfillment” passages may be found in 1:22-23; 2:5-6; 3:3; 4:14-16; 21:4-5, and numerous other times in Matthew’s writing. This literary device is used to firmly fix in the mind of the reader/hearer the idea that Jesus has come to bring about the purposes of God as revealed to the prophets and original recipients of Torah.

As I have outlined in this essay by focusing on Matthew, each gospel writer can be better appreciated for their contribution to the whole story of Jesus by looking at each one through the particular lens in which they view their own world. In the case of Matthew it is a very Jewish lens, seeking to show the relevance of the ancient prophecies which he saw fulfilled in the person of Jesus. When one is able to look at each of the gospels in this way it is possible to build up the sense of a “bigger picture” formed from a number of different, yet in many ways very similar sketches of Jesus life, and therefore come to understand more fully the inter-relation of the four gospels with one another.

 Bibliography

Brown, R.E; An Introduction To The New Testament, Doubleday, 1997

Brown, R.E., Fitzmeyer, J, A. & Murphy, R. E. (eds), The New Jerome Bible Commentary, Prentice Hall, 1990

Burridge, R.A; Four Gospels, One Jesus?, SPCK, 1994

Burkett, D; An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity, Cambridge, 2002

Drane, J; Introducing the New Testament, Lion, 1999

Ehrman, B. D; The New Testament, Oxford University Press, 2008

Johnson, L. T; The Writings of the New Testament, SCM Press, 1999