Sermon: John 18: 33-37/Revelation1: 4b- 8

Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent, and so our readings are about Jesus as king and our focus is on God's kingdom.

Of course, we live in a kingdom! And our king, as his mother before him, calls himself a servant of the people – he is in his role to serve us. This is a model from our faith, from Christianity – the model of the servant king.  But, still, how different to the way Jesus lived out his kingship.  In spite of all that King Charles does and all the places he visits and his heart for our planet.  In spite even of his recent cancer diagnosis and treatment, King Charles remains insulated from the pain and suffering in the world.  He lives in palaces and travels in entourages and eats banquets and receives the best care for his medical needs.

Already then, we start to identify the differences between King Charles and King Jesus.  No palaces for Jesus.  No luxuries.  No privileged lifestyle that sets him above those around him.  Jesus is not able to walk away from pain.  It is all around him as he teaches and heals, and the climax of his time on earth finds him unable to avoid one of the most painful deaths that humans have ever invented.  This is a very different king and a very different kingdom.

 
Our Gospel reading today gives us John’s version of the conversation between Jesus and Pilate.  There are not many words here and yet so much is said. You can feel the space between these two men as they respond to the situation they find themselves in.

Let’s look at Jesus’ words in verse 36.  He says: My kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.  But now my kingdom is from another place.

When we think of God’s Kingdom – the kingdom of which Jesus is king – these words are vital.  Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. Jesus says that if his kingdom was of this world his servants would be fighting.  But this is not what God’s kingdom is about: we do not need to fight to protect Jesus, to stop him being hurt or killed.

Jesus’ coronation was with a crown of thorns that pierced him.  Of course, this crown was given to Jesus to mock him.  But it is also a potent symbol of his kingdom.  He is a king who does not leave others to suffer – he suffers with his people.  It is very apt that our suffering servant King’s first crown is one of thorns that brings him pain. 

We are not Christians to avoid pain – that is not how it works. As we reflect over the past year I know that suffering has been quite central in the experience of some of us. Suffering is never easy, it is never something that we choose for ourselves and it is not what God desires.  But I wonder if we can find some encouragement as we recognise that Christ’s kingdom is born out of pain, and suffering, and poverty. 

For me this raises a question: where is Christ’s kingdom being born into our world at the moment?  In the suffering that we see on our TV screens and hear on our radios, God seems absent.  I do not believe for one moment that God causes any of that suffering and pain.  I do not believe it is his will.  But I do believe that his kingdom can be found there – that Christ himself can be found in that pain: he is there with the suffering; with the injured; with the maimed; with the hungry; with the naked; with the poor and homeless.  If Christ feels absent to us, we may need to look for him in a different place: we may need to look for him amongst the suffering and find him in our own suffering.

Even in these difficult times, when we see suffering all around us, God says to us:  Be still and know that I am God. 

Are you a Miranda fan?  Over the past few years Miranda has struggled with chronic fatigue.  She had to give up the work which she loved and face up to some difficult realities.  I am a fan and on the day I was writing this I listened to an interview with her on the program ‘Young Again’. It was not a big part of what she said but in explaining what she went through and what she learnt she mentioned ‘being still’ – not running from the emotion welling up in her but being still in it.  To find God’s presence in these times of suffering we need to still ourselves: God is always there.  Don’t beat yourself up if God feels absent – that is not what God wants.  Still yourself; just be still; and just trust.

Later in our passage Jesus says (verse 37): You are right in saying I am a king.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

More powerful words.  Jesus says that the reason he came into the world was to testify to the truth, and that everyone who is on the side of truth listens to him.

And Pilate responds, ‘What is truth?’

We live in a world where truth is constantly compromised.  We live in a world where we can not trust what our public figures say; where we can not trust film and photographs.  It feels like there are many, many people in the world currently who would echo Pilate’s words and say, ‘What is truth?’

Different versions of the Bible translate the last words in verse 37 slightly differently, but I wonder, what does it mean to be ‘on the side of the truth’, or to ‘belong to the truth’, or to ‘love truth’?

The opposite of the truth is lies.  We all know how destructive lies can be.  In personal relationships lies destroy trust and love.  This translates and magnifies when lies happen on a community and national level.  Lies undermine love; they undermine trust; they divide people.  God is love and God is one.  God is the opposite of lies: God is truth.  Of course this is one of the descriptions Jesus gives of himself:  I am the way, the TRUTH and the life.

One thing we do as we come to church each week is to confess.  Again, here we find the truth.  We need to bring the truth of our failures to God to mend that relationship with him.  Truth can be difficult to say, and painful to hear, but there is something about the truth that liberates us and cleanses us.  Earlier in John, Jesus talks of ‘knowing the truth and the truth setting us free’.

When truth is painful, or awkward, the temptation is to sweep it under the carpet, or bury it, or ignore it, or to numb ourselves from the pain it causes.  Can I may be just give one example of this?  Climate change is real – it is happening and it is already having a huge impact on people’s lives across the planet.  But it is a hard truth to face.  To be honest, it is an overwhelming truth to face.  So, what do we do?  We ignore it.  We pretend that it is not our problem.  We convince ourselves that there is nothing we can do about it, that we have no responsibility.  We may numb ourselves from the pain it causes, by drinking alcohol, or booking holidays, or going to concerts – we throw ourselves into something else.  I completely understand this.  But I believe also that God wants us to face the truth – it will be painful; it is painful.  We may need to mourn and grieve together but Jesus didn’t just say he was the truth, he also said he was the way and the life.  And here is his model to us: his way is not to avoid the pain and suffering.  His model is to go through the pain and suffering, facing and being the truth, and find the life that is on the other side of this.  Life in all its fullness and colour.  That seems difficult to believe, it may seem impossible, but God’s kingdom is an ‘upside down place’ where truth is found in contradictions: where suffering can bring joy and where death leads to life.
How do we testify to our faith in our current age? We need to seek the truth and face the pain. 

Is there a truth you have swept under the carpet? That you have numbed yourself to.  In God’s ‘not of this world’ kingdom maybe that is something that you need to go away and start facing.  It may bring pain, but God is in that pain, and I believe he will show you the way through it.

Verse 7 of our Revelation reading says:  Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.

When I read this, I thought: why will we be mourning? The answer that came to me is that I will be mourning because I have missed the point of my life here on earth.  Jesus will come with his truth, and I will see my life for the sham it often is.  I will see that I have not faced the truths in this world, I have not grieved, and I have not let myself suffer to find that deeper relationship with my God.

God invites us into his kingdom.  His kingdom which is born in suffering, that abides in his truth and ultimately brings the love and life which we all seek.  I encourage us all to face the truth Christ brings us, to not shy away from the suffering it might bring: to seek that deeper life with our God who is love and longs for us as we long for him.

 

Sermon                                                                     John 3:1-17

About this: A recent sermon which includes one of the most famous Bible verses.  The Bible text is included in the talk. The formatting of this as I published it to the blogsite is a little strange - sorry about that!

Let’s start with the truth!  This passage includes one of the most famous verses in the Bible.  It is a familiar passage.  Yet, the truth is, when I sat and read it to start preparing for this morning I thought: Crikey!  What does this mean?! I felt very much with Nicodemus in his puzzlement about Jesus’ words. 

Please don’t let the familiarity of these words get in the way of their meaning. Let’s be curious, question and grapple with these words to truly understand what is being said to us.

I’m going to focus in on a few verses but let’s also walk through the story to put those verses in their context.

Verses 1+2: Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.  He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’

So, the first thing to notice is that Nicodemus is a man of standing in the Jewish Ruling Council.  He comes to visit Jesus at night because he doesn’t want to be seen, but these initial words of his tell us that he recognises Jesus as someone special.

Verse 3: Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’

Jesus’ response to the compliment that Nicodemus gives him is provocative.  Honestly, if you heard this for the first time – as Nicodemus did – would you know what Jesus meant?  This phrase is often translated as being ‘born again’ – for me that translation carries a lot of baggage.  It feels as if the concept of being ‘born again’ was adopted by the Evangelical wing of the church and became a definition of an Evangelical Christian and therefore associated with a set of Evangelical beliefs.  Being a ‘born again Christian’, for me, has become tainted with a sense of being exclusionary: a sense of people saying I’m a more authentic Christian than you are: I’m a better Christian than you are.  I find this translation, which talks of being ‘born from above’, more helpful – I am drawn to it. 

Understandably, Nicodemus doesn’t understand what Jesus is saying.  I think what Jesus is saying is that in order to see God’s kingdom something has to happen to us: something that we are not in control of.  I was not in control of my own physical birth – none of us choose to be born.  I think this being ‘born for above’ is also out of our control.

Let’s continue reading Jesus’ response to Nicodemus in the Message version of the Bible.  Verses 5-8:

Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.

“So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”

The first thing to say about these words of Jesus is that they are a bit harsh!  They are harsh for a reason.  Jesus is talking to a leader of his faith – the Jewish faith – and this leader does not understand how God works.  Nicodemus is in a position where he would be teaching about God and yet he needs Jesus to teach him things which – to Jesus – are basic.  However, I don’t think the fact that we are not leaders in the Jewish Council lets us off the hook.  How long have you been a follower of Jesus? How well do you understand what Jesus is saying here? These are the fundamentals of our faith – we need to grapple with these words.

So, what is Jesus saying? Firstly (look at the words highlighted in yellow), I think Jesus is pointing to the mystery of God.  God – God’s spirit – is not in our control.  We can’t see it; we can’t fully understand; we can’t put it in a box; we can’t decide who it touches and when it touches them.  The things of God are from God – we can not manufacture them.  God is God: outside of our definitions and control.

Then (looking at the words highlighted in grey), how do we respond to our God?  Just because we’re not in control doesn’t mean we should do nothing.  We need to put ourselves in a position to receive God’s touch. We need to submit ourselves to God; we need to be baptised into a new life.  We need to do what we can to put ourselves in God’s way.  We’ll come back to this…

Verse 9 shows us that Nicodemus still doesn’t understand (and let’s be honest – do we really understand what Jesus has said?).  Nicodemus asked, “What do you mean by this? How does this happen?”

And so in verses 10-15 Jesus vents some of his frustration with Nicodemus. Jesus said, “You’re a respected teacher of Israel and you don’t know these basics? Listen carefully. I’m speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don’t believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can’t see, the things of God?

“No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.

In trying to get Nicodemus to understand what he is saying Jesus mentions an old testament story that Nicodemus would have been very familiar with (The story can be found in Numbers 21: 4-9).  He gives Nicodemus a bridge into what he is saying.  In the desert God commanded Moses to make a bronze snake on a stick and lift it up.  Anyone who looked at the snake was healed from the poisonous snake bites they were suffering with.  Jesus says in the same way it is necessary for him to be lifted up – so people can see him and trust him and gain eternal life.

And then we come to the famous verse!  Let’s read it along with verse 17 – in the Message version:  This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. 

Again, please don’t let your familiarity with these words stop you from being curious, grappling and questioning.  Sometimes reading familiar words from the Bible in a different translation can help us to question a bit more.  I honestly looked at these famous words and thought: what does this mean?  I have been grappling with these words – questioning them.  I’m going to share what came out of these words for me but please do grapple yourself!

So, here’s what I observed:

I notice that God GAVE his son.  And knowing that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one we know that this means he GAVE himself.  I heard recently on a podcast that one definition of love is to give your life for someone else.  God is the definition of love and he demonstrates this at high personal, incarnate, expense.

He gave himself so that no-one need be destroyed.  My understanding of this verse is evolving.  One way of understanding what Jesus did is that he paid the price – of his life – so that we can be reconciled with God.  I find this idea difficult – why would a God who is love demand such a price to be paid?  What I see played out in life is that when I walk outside of the way of love it leads to me to destruction and the destruction of others.  I think we all know this at a visceral/instinctual level.  We know we mess up; we hurt people; we destroy.  Jesus shows us the way of love in completely giving himself: he is the way, the truth and the life.  The way of love looks like failure – it leads Jesus to death.  The way of love worked out in our own lives may also look like failure.  But we know that this self-giving way leads to resurrection: to new life.

Note that ANYONE can have whole and lasting life by believing in Jesus.  But what does it mean to ‘believe in Jesus’? In my grappling with the text this was the central question that came up.  I think in the 21^st Century when we think of a person who believes in Jesus we think of someone who believes that Jesus lived, died and rose again.  But these words were spoken to Nicodemus – Jesus was sitting right in front of him – he didn’t need Jesus to tell him to believe in his existence!  So, what did Jesus mean when he said to believe in him? In my Cruden’s concordance I found a definition of believe that makes sense to me: to be fully persuaded.  Am I/ are you fully persuaded by Jesus in all he said and did?  Being fully persuaded by Jesus is not an easy path: it is the narrow way: if we take Jesus’ words seriously they are going to have an impact on our lives.  Jesus calls us to be his apprentices – to draw near to him, learn from him and become like him – this is the kind of believing he wanted for Nicodemus and this is the kind of believing he wants from us.  This understanding of believing gives us a lot more to work on (remember I said we’d come back to what we can do?!).  It is not an overnight zap and change – this was never how Jesus changed people’s character when he was on earth.  We are on a journey and our call is to daily walk with Jesus: walking in his way; being formed by and responding to the spirit.

It is so important that we read verse 16 with verse 17.  Jesus didn’t come to condemn or accuse (equally we should not condemn or accuse).  Jesus came to put things right and to teach the way of Love, with the ultimate consequence of giving his life.  He loves us that much.

God is mystery and will work as he wills.  But we do have a choice.  If we are fully persuaded by Jesus we can live out our lives as his apprentices: learning the way of love.  And, when we do this, we will have glimpses of that kingdom.

Photo by Bhaskar Agarwal on Unsplash

 

Sermon: Acts 17:22-31 and John 14:15-31

Theme: The Lord of the Dance

Yesterday at church those leading the service talked of how our faith is like a dance, in which we are learning to tune into the music of God’s love and move in response.  In looking for what to share on my blog I found something I wrote in May 2017 on these two passages which feels like it is exploring the same theme.  How do we understand God? How do we tune into the music of love and join in his dance?

In the verses in Acts Paul is talking to the people of Athens.  They ask him to explain ‘this new idea’.  They are thinking people but what Paul is saying is something different – I love that they want to understand.  I find myself standing with them saying, ‘Yes, Paul, please explain!’ 

Paul in his ‘tuned-in-ness to God’ understands their desire, and he speaks to them because he  wants the unknown to become known (v 23); he explains that God does not live in temples built by hands (v24): he describes how God wants humans to seek him out, reach out for him and find him, ‘though he is not far from any of us’ (v27).  In verse 28 he uses the Athenian’s own words to explain that God is with them: ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’ ‘We are his offspring’.

I sense that searching for God in my own soul.  I sense the presence of God when I slow down and pause.  I feel like my life’s journey is to return home to the place inside myself where God/Love dwells and this is a journey that we are all on however eloquently or uncomprehendingly we articulate and understand it.

Then we come to Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John. We see that Heaven’s strategy is relationship and starts with the relationship ‘within’ God – between the three parts of God.  Jesus says in verse 16: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counsellor to be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth.

God is ‘three in one’.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The relationship between these three is at the heart of our faith.  The Holy Trinity is a difficult concept but as we struggle to understand we find the deeper truths and the mystery that is God.  We will never fully understand ‘him’ but that shouldn’t stop us trying and, in the process, beginning to unwrap that bit of God’s kingdom which lives within us.

The relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is sometimes understood as the ’Divine Dance’.  There is movement and harmony and it is centred around Love. Jesus says in verse 20: ‘you are in me, and I am in you’.  Jesus is in the Father and we are in him, and he is in us, and the Holy Spirit ‘lives with us and will be in us’ (v17).

The intertwined nature of the relationship reminds me of a Celtic knot within which we find no ends.  The flow of the ‘three in one’ is beautifully illustrated in this ancient art.  And that image is deepened when we realise this is a static symbol of something that is moving and flowing.  It is a dance of love into which we are invited: we are invited into that Love energy.

Yesterday at church we sang ‘The Lord of the Dance’.  I tend to associate this song with my 70’s Primary education – a favourite in assemblies.  But yesterday I heard its truth.  Jesus is the Lord of the Dance and invites us to join in.

“I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me: I am the Lord of the Dance said he!”

I would encourage you to listen to ‘The Lord of the Dance’ and to consider Jesus’ words: You are in me and I am in you.  What does that mean to you?  How does that reality sit with you?  God lives in you…  Have you found ‘him’ in there yet?

Picture by Caleb Woods on Unsplash