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: James 2:1-7/Mark 7: 24-37

Theme: God's Grace

Something was said to me recently that wasn’t new, but hit home in a different way.  The comment was:  Everything from God is given…  Everything from God is given: it is a gift.

We know this – grace is the basis of our faith – and yet that simple fact touched me again and released some of the tension in me.  There is nothing I can do to make those ‘God moments’ happen – they are not as a result of my effort, or my goodness, or my ability.  They are graced moments given by God.  

I think that our lives are probably littered with those moments but often we are not awake enough – alert enough – to recognise them and relish them.  So, there’s a letting go of the straining to achieve and of the effort (because all is grace) and there’s a waking up to what is already there: waiting for us to notice.

There’s a tension in this – letting go and waking up feel like opposites.  And I find a tension within me because I long to draw nearer to God, and yet my faith teaches me that there is nothing I can do to make it happen: everything from God is given.

The words and stories that we find in our reading today are helpful in this tension.  There is nothing we can do to earn or achieve God’s presence but look at these words.  What todays readings speak to me of is our attitude.  Because our attitude can definitely get in the way of God’s grace – prevent it from reaching us.

Our reading in James is subtitled: ‘Favouritism Forbidden’.  These are strong words from James.  He points out that when you favour the rich and dismiss the poor you have ‘become judges with evil thoughts’ (v4).  When I reflect back I can’t think of times when I have favoured the rich and dismissed the poor but, honestly, it wouldn’t take long to think of a time when I have favoured one person over another.  Part of me feels like that is ‘just human’: one of those things that I just can’t change, but life has taught me differently through the grace of God.  I can honestly say that there have been people in my life who I have found difficult and avoided, but when I have let go of my discrimination and judgement something has opened up within me and changed within me.  There has been some kind of release.

Because you see, God does not discriminate.  That is difficult for us to get our heads around: how can God love that awkward, bossy, angry, violent, aggressive, patronising, self-important person as much as me?  Well, he does.  And it is when we can leave our prejudices behind that we can walk a step nearer to God’s grace.  The picture that comes into my head is of God’s grace literally pouring into the world.  When we discriminate it is like we put up an umbrella and we stop God’s grace and love from reaching us.  Maybe God’s grace feels a bit too much for us – some how we need that protection. More and more I just want to be soaked in it.  It is completely from God but letting go of my prejudice will help me to stand in a place where it can reach me.

Our Gospel passage gives us two more clues as to what we can do to change our attitude and be in the right place in our hearts to receive God.  In our Gospel we have two healings.  They are quite different.  In the first a Syrophoenician woman comes to ask for healing for her daughter.  Note that, in this passage, Jesus is wanting to stay hidden.  I wonder if he was seeking out rest and refreshment?  But the woman comes and falling at his feet, makes her request.

Jesus’ answer sounds harsh: First let the children eat all they want for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.

How would you respond to that? How would it make you feel? In our current culture where offence is so easily given and taken I can imagine people being outraged – getting up and walking out, but not the woman in our story, she says: Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.

She is able to accept what Jesus has said and she trusts in his love, his generosity and his power – she knew that he could help her.  She accepted her position and believed Jesus could and would help her. And it is this that seems to change Jesus’ response – he says to her: For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.  It is almost as if Jesus is compelled to respond and heal because of the woman’s words.  Her words must have come from her heart – they were not ‘just’ words.  So, here is another way to put ourselves in the way of God’s grace: to humbly and sincerely know our status and to have complete confidence in God’s love.  Again, I can’t earn God’s healing or grace – it is a gift of God – but is it my attitude that is getting in the way?

Lastly, the story of the deaf and mute man.  It does feel in these stories that Jesus is reluctant to heal.  We read that the people who bring this man to Jesus beg him to touch their friend.  Jesus takes him away from the crowds and then: put his fingers in his ears, then he spat and touched the man’s tongue.  I wonder what is going on in the man’s head…!  I wonder if he trusted Jesus?  I wonder if Jesus needed to do those things?  However, what I find more interesting is the word that Jesus speaks.  He says to the man: be opened.  We can take that literally:  physically his ears needed to be opened and  a metaphoric opening of his mouth was also necessary.  But to me there is something more significant going on here, spiritually.  It’s like there is some kind of blockage in the man that needs to be opened.

I wonder which part of us is blocked.  Have we closed ourselves off from God in some way?  Can we submit to Jesus and let him open us up?

God’s grace, God’s touch, God’s love is not earned – it is given freely as a gift.  This life we have is a gift from God.  There is nothing we can do to earn God’s grace – that is why it is call grace.

But let us examine our hearts – are they ready to accept the gifts that God is showering on us:

Have we rid ourselves of discrimination?

Are we aware of our status before God?  Yes, we are his children, but do we come with the humility which acknowledges God for who God is?

Do we have faith in God’s power, love and generosity?

Have we opened ourselves up to what God wants to do in us?

Can you picture yourself standing in the showers of God’s grace? Can you come out from the shelter, put down the umbrella, even take off your coat and hat: God wants us to receive and absorb all he has to give!

 

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

 

 

Sermon: Mark 1:9-15

Theme: The Beginning of Jesus’ Ministry

This talk is from February 2021.  Do you remember that time?  In the UK we were in our second lock-down of the Covid Pandemic.  It was not an easy time and we were not meeting as a church – this talk was for an on-line service.  There is still so much pain in the world: we still live in confusing and distressing times.  This short passage from Mark tells us about the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry with the encouragement to ‘change our minds’.  This is not something that happens quickly for most of us.  Hopefully these words can come as an encouragement and give us hope: we have not been abandoned; Love still calls us.

The passage is within the talk but can also be found by following this link:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201:9-15&version=NIV

This reading from Mark is very short, and yet what happens in it is very significant.  In a sense it feels like Mark wants to rush on to tell us all about Jesus’ ministry – he is in a hurry to get to the action – but before he can start that properly he needs to mention these three things: Jesus’ baptism; his temptation in the desert; and the first words of his ministry.

So, a few observations:

Verses 9, 10 and 11: In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan.  And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

If we read the verses just before this we find that John is talking about Jesus, describing him as the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.  But Jesus doesn’t come to John saying, ‘that’s me – I’m the one you’ve been waiting for’.  He comes to John in humility and obedience.  He submits himself to John’s baptism which is not in the temple but out in the wilderness.  He does not go to the religious authorities but to John with his message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  In the Message version of the Bible, John’s message is described as ‘a message of life-change that leads to the forgiveness of sins’.  The word repentance carries some quite heavy baggage with it I think.  The original word that was used was ‘metenoia’ which literally means a change of mind.  John’s message was calling people to ‘change their minds’, change the way they were seeing things, to turn around and see the whole picture.  It was this transformation and renewal of their thinking that would lead to the forgiveness of sins.  It is this that Jesus re-aligns himself with (the word religion literally means to ‘re-align’) and God was pleased with him and opens up the heavens and speaks to him.

Verses 12 and 13 cover 40 days of Jesus’s life – 40 very important days.  In the Message version of the Bible they say: At once, this same spirit pushed Jesus out into the wild.  For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by Satan.  Wild animals were his companions, and angels took care of him.

It is worth noting straight away that it is the same spirit that falls on Jesus as a dove as he is baptised, that leads him into the desert or the wilderness.  When we are in the deserts of our lives it is easy to think that God has abandoned us.  God does not abandon us, and sometimes it is God’s spirit leading us into those desert times.  These 40 days, covered in these two short verses in Mark, were surely a critical time for Jesus.  A time of testing, yes, but also a time of learning.  Note that Mark mentions three things about Jesus’s time in the wilderness: he was tested by Satan, he found companionship with the wild animals and the angels took care of him.  Jesus entered the silence of the wilderness and, though he was tempted by Satan, he also found God there – through creation and through the care of angels.

We are in ‘desert days’ at the moment and many of us are taking solace in nature – recognising God in his creation.  I am sure that we are also being tempted – distracted by things that make us fearful, that bring out our anger and hatred, things that numb our love and bring out our selfishness and greed. But GOD IS WITH US – through his creation, in his creatures, and through angels if we will only let them minister to us. 

Through submitting to being baptised by John, Jesus ‘changed his mind’: he allowed himself to be transformed and blessed, enabling him to find companionship and angels in the wilderness.

The last two verses of our reading, 14 and 15: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, and saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.”  Or in the Message version of the Bible: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here.  Change your life and believe the Message.”

After those 40 days in the wilderness Jesus’ message is the same as John’s – metanoia – change the way you are thinking, turn around and see in a new way, because the kingdom of God has come near, or is here (depending on the translation you are using!) 

To know Christ is to know that God’s kingdom is here, now.  It is among us and within us.  This is the precious gift we have been given – a gift which is not given to us to cling onto but to share, and in sharing it to let it grow.

It takes a ‘change of mind’ to see this – a transformation – which is not a one-time thing but a gradual awakening, punctuated with euphoric glimpses of ‘heaven’.  Heaven is already here, and the angels already attend to us.  Let us pray that in our on-going desert days we can open ourselves up to the companionship of the natural world and all its creatures, the care of angels – however you see that manifested – and the love that is our God.

God bless you.

 

Sermon: Matthew 4:1-11

Theme: Lent

About this:

This talk is from this time last year.  It ponders what the wilderness is and how God meets us there.  As Lent approaches I find it helpful to refocus, and remind myself what Lent is about.  If you’re also thinking about how to ‘use’ Lent I hope these words will be helpful.

Here’s a link to the main Bible passage:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4%3A+1-11&version=NRSVUE

 

Last Sunday morning we were on the mountain – with Moses, waiting in the cloud, and with Jesus being transfigured.  This week we find ourselves in a very different place – in the wilderness or the desert.  Whilst I was thinking about what to say this Sunday lots of things came to my mind: my prayer is that God will pull some clarity out of all the thoughts bouncing around in my head and that he will speak to you out of what is said.

One verse that seems pertinent as we look at this passage is 1 John 2:6: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.  Jesus calls us to follow him as we begin Lent I believe the challenge is to follow him into the wilderness.

I am aware that some of us may feel that we are already in the metaphorical wilderness.  Life gives us these experiences and, even if we are not there at the moment, I imagine that we can all think back to times in our lives which have felt like the wilderness, or maybe like a desert.  What does it feel like to be in this place?  A little lost; a sense of God’s absence rather than his presence; things feel hard or parched; there is a lack of comfort; a lack of sustenance; we feel exposed, alone, bereft.

The wilderness is not an easy place to be.  If you are in that place at the moment I hope that I can offer you some encouragement. 

We read in verse one of our passage: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.  The first thing we need to recognise in our wilderness experiences is that God leads us there.  You’re not there because you did something wrong – God is not punishing you.  He has led you to the wilderness for a reason.

In the wilderness it can feel like God is not with us but that is not true.  That is the whispering lie of the ‘devil’ who wants you to believe that God, who is love, has abandoned you.  It is simply not true.  We know from the stories we find in the Bible that God meets his people in the desert; in the wilderness.

When the Israelites wandered through the desert for 40 years God was with them and provided for them.  But that is not the story that caught my attention this time.  I came across the story of Hagar in Genesis 16.  After becoming pregnant with Abram’s child she runs away from Abram’s wife Sarah into the desert.  When you think about the human dynamics of this story it is MESSY:  Hagar was an Egyptian slave running away from her Jewish mistress whilst pregnant with her Jewish master’s child.  When she is in the desert God finds her and speaks to her.  And what drew me to this story is the name that Hagar gives to God – ‘the God who sees me’.  If you’re currently in a desert place, know this: God sees you – he has not turned his back on you.

In Hosea (chapter 2) as God speaks to his people he equates them with an adulterous wife and his words are harsh – there is no getting away from that. But then in verse 14 God says: So I am going to take her into the desert again; there I will win her back with words of love.  In another version it says: there I will speak to her tenderly.  What does that say to me?  It says that God leads us into those desert places we experience because he wants to speak words of love to us. 

You see, there is something about a desert, or a wilderness.  Something that strips everything else away.  We are vulnerable there.  We find ourselves ‘naked’ with nowhere to hide.  It’s a place where we drop all our pretences.  It’s a raw place.  And, hang on a minute – our nakedness doesn’t bother God.  Back in the Garden of Eden we were naked and we lived that heavenly life with God – Adam and Eve only hid, only wore clothes, after they had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

So, when we are in this desert place – this vulnerable place – we are in a place where God can reach us.  The Desert fathers and mothers purposely went into the desert to do internal spiritual work – to find their true selves.  When we find ourselves in our metaphorical desert, can we acknowledge where we are and have honest conversations with God?  Can we use that open, vulnerable place to let God speak to us more deeply?  God is speaking those words of love to us in the desert – can we listen deeply and let his love reach right down into our emptiness?

Desert experiences are hard – no one is denying that – but God is present: talk to him.  God finds people in their deserts.  Teaches people in their deserts.  Deserts strip us of our defences, so it is just us and God.  It can feel scary but, God is there – he sees us, and he speaks tenderly to us.

Back to today’s passage: Jesus in the desert.  Jesus, who we should remember is 100% human, is led into the desert by the spirit and spends forty days and forty nights fasting.  I find it interesting that in the accounts of Jesus’ wilderness experience the focus is on him being tested by Satan.  But this test only happened after Jesus had been in the wilderness fasting for those forty days and forty nights.  Fasting for that sustained period is something beyond me, but in preparing for the tests I feel that Jesus must have drawn close to God.  Not in a ‘mountaintop’ way: sometimes when we are suffering that sense of God’s presence is just as real.  We unite with God in pain as well as joy.  In the suffering that Jesus was going through because of his fasting he was 100% focused on God – his suffering led him towards God not away from him.

Here is another lesson for us.  Sometimes we let our suffering come like a wedge between us and God – can we turn our suffering into that honest conversation we have just been talking about so that our suffering can draw us closer to God? 

As we enter this season of Lent how are we marking it?  Have we given up chocolate, or alcohol, or Facebook?  Or have we taken something up?  Whatever we have chosen to do, or if we have chosen to do nothing, is it worth pausing and thinking: is that change going to bring me closer to God?  It’s something that I am mulling over myself: how do I use this time of Lent to refocus on my God?  That is really what this passage is all about.

To quote NT Wright: These readings are not about ‘temptation’ so much as about true worship.  Jesus recognised his temptations as distractions from worshipping and trusting the one true God.

We need to be careful how we think about these temptations that Jesus faces.  It’s important to recognise that the things that Jesus is tempted by are not wholly bad.  He had been fasting for forty days and forty nights – in the Message version of the Bible it says ‘he was famished’ – so is turning stones into bread such a bad idea?!  The point is not that what Jesus is tempted to is evil, the point is that each of the temptations is a distraction from whole-heartedly loving and trusting God.  Turning stones into bread, proving God’s love by being caught, gaining glory and possessions – these are not evil in and of themselves but they are all pointless if they take Jesus’ focus (his love, his trust, his listening ear) away from God.  All that time alone with God in the desert has enabled Jesus to tune into God and he does not want any distraction from that. 

To quote NT Wright again: Every moment, God calls us to know, love and worship him, and thereby celebrate our genuine humanity, and reflect his image in the world.  Temptations lure us to turn away from that privilege and invitation, to lower our gaze, shorten our sights, and settle for second best or worse.  Sin, like a misfired arrow, drops short of the call to true humanness; to bearing and reflecting God’s image.

When I ponder this I am challenged to think about what my temptations really are: what are the things that distract me from God?  One example for me is staying up watching (or re-watching) tv programmes. Watching TV is not bad in and of itself, but – for me – it is a sometimes a distraction.

At the beginning of Lent, what is causing us to ‘miss the mark’ – to miss out on being beautifully human and reflecting God’s image?  How can we reflect the light if we’re not facing the light?  When our attention is called elsewhere we are ‘lowering our gaze, shortening our sights, settling for second best or worse’.  Maybe we need to reconsider what we choose to give up or take up during this season of Lent.

As I’ve reflected on this passage it’s felt like the temptations that the devil brings to Jesus are like a pestering.  Like he’s prodding Jesus; needling him; saying – stop looking at God, look over here.  It makes me think of the noise in my head when I try to be still with God – all the things that crowd in to distract me.  And I want to have the words that Jesus had to still that noise and focus on God.  But not just that.  I also want the words to stop hatred and bring love, the words to ease despair and bring hope, the words to bring joy to places of sadness…  Because God is not just to do with being still but to do with connecting and loving and bringing peace and joy and patience and kindness.  That is the genuine humanity NT Wright is talking about – that is the image of God being reflected.

So, when it comes to what we give up, or take up, for Lent, what do we do?  These words jumped off the page for me yesterday as I read my Lent book:  it all depends on fasting from unkindness and choosing justice.  Maybe for Lent we need to take up kindness as a spiritual practise – what would that look like?

This interpretation of Isaiah 58: 9-11 is also worth pondering: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech, if you bestow your bread on the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted, then light shall rise for you in the darkness… and God will guide you always and give you relief in desert places.  There’s the relief in the desert, the angels.  There’s the fasting, the kind of giving up that God desires of us.  And can I just say that if kindness is something you want to focus on during Lent, remember to be kind to yourself.  This is not about punishing ourselves – it is about drawing near to God and God loves you.  Sometimes being kind to ourselves is the kindness that is needed the most.

The words Jesus uses to refute the devil come from Deuteronomy, with two of his answers coming from Deuteronomy 6 which also includes:  Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  Jesus was in the wilderness practising this command – practising loving, trusting, listening to God; the devil came to tempt him – to try and pull his attention away from God; Jesus had the words to refute him; the devil left.  And then: suddenly angels came and waited on him. I honestly don’t see why angels won’t come and wait on us in our deserts but, as wonderful as that would be, that is not our motive.

Our motivation is to love God with our whole being and to reflect his likeness into our broken world.  To bring light and love into the world.  As we set out on the wilderness journey of Lent let us remember that we are following in Jesus footsteps and let us do all we can to keep our eyes set on him so that we can reflect his love and light into our broken world.

                                                Photo by David McLenachan on Unsplash

Sermon: Isaiah 2:1-5

Theme: Advent

About this:

This is a talk from Advent Sunday last year.  As I read it this time I heard words I needed to hear again.  Unfortunately we are still facing very dark times.  I still need the encouragement to find and share the light within and around me. Reading the passage again in the light of the current conflict in Gaza I long for the peace it speaks of.

I hope these words will be encouraging and comforting as we enter the season of Advent in a week's time.

Here's a link to the Bible reading:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+2%3A1-5&version=NRSVUE

Last week Riffat spoke about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  She talked about sheep – how they are not very bright, how they wander off, how one will fall off a steep edge and others will follow to see what happened and end up falling off the edge too.  As I listened to Riffat I thought again how like sheep we are.  How, unfortunately, we are not very bright – including those of us who have qualifications and experience and learning: when it comes to spiritual things we still struggle to understand.  How easy it is for us to be oblivious to our shepherd and wander away; to get ourselves lost or in danger.  How we follow each other and are unaware of what is ahead of us until it is too late.  This speaks to me of the current times that we find ourselves in.  How like sheep we are.  How lost we are.

But today is the first Sunday of Advent.  Advent is a time of waiting, and a time of hope.  We have the anticipation of something good coming – the hope of God being born among us.  Immanuel – God with us.  As we look at today’s passages my prayer is that God will speak to us and plant that seed of hope inside us in the difficult times we face.  Because there is hope for us, even though we are sheep!

In the passage in Isaiah we are given an image of God rising up and all nations streaming towards Him.  The Lord’s temple will be raised above the hills and all nations will stream to it.  And then in verse 3 it says: “Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.  He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

Let’s just spend some time dwelling on this verse…

“Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.  He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

What is your deepest desire?  What is it that you want the most in life? 

I think this verse speaks to us of our deepest desire: when people see God rise up, when they see the beauty of his temple, their deepest desire is to go to God’s house so that they learn his ways and walk in his paths.  I think this desire is deep in each one of us even if we are not aware of it: even if that wasn’t your first answer to my question. Sometimes this is spoken of as ‘a God shaped hole’ – there is a space in us that can only be filled by God, a desire in us that only God can meet.

I am currently on a course called ‘Encounter’ which is very interesting – maybe I will get to share with you more of what I am learning as time goes on.  We recently had a session on the fall and looked at different understandings of sin.  One of these understandings is that sin is ‘misdirected desire’.  If we understand humans as beings with that deep desire for God, then sin can be seen as what happens when we start desiring other things in place of God.  This can lead to all kinds of addictions because it is impossible for us to find a replacement for God that will meet our deepest desire.  I wonder how obvious our addictions are – some of us may have struggled with alcohol or drugs or cigarettes; for others of us the addiction may be a lot more subtle.  For myself I would think of food – which I eat when I don’t need it – and television – I can really watch too much of it.  In those things I am looking for comfort and rest and pleasure – but those things will never meet my need in the way that God can.

Unfortunately, Christmas is a time when we very often get distracted by all the other desires in our lives.  These might be material possessions – from an early age the question has been ‘what do you want for Christmas?’ - or it might be the desire to see friends and family, or to keep one of our dearly held traditions.  Christmas is an incredibly busy time of year and the danger is that we do not pay attention to our deepest desire which is for God. 

So this verse, I think, is very helpful:

“Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.  He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

But then I ask myself – where is it that I need to go?  Where is this ‘house of God’?  Of course, one answer is that it is here, at church.  This is a house of God.  We come here to meet with God, to learn his ways so that we can walk in his paths.  But I think that there is something else here, something that doesn’t need a building, something that I carry with me all the time.

When I read this verse I am reminded that my body is described as ‘a temple of the Lord’ and that Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within and among us.  This verse invites us to remember that God is inside us: it invites us to drop down inside ourselves and find the place inside of us where God dwells. 

In my sheep-like humanity it is easy to forget or ignore this.  It is easy to busy myself with the demands of my life, to get caught up in all that is going on in the world, even to busy myself in doing good, and not take time to be still and connect with God in his temple inside me. 

The journey I need to take to the house of God is an internal journey.  I need to be still and drop down into God; into the place where he lives in me.  When we find this place of connection with the sacred we will be taught his ways.  The ways of peace as described in our Isaiah passage. Connection with Christ brings peace, just as Jesus breathed peace on his disciples when he appeared to them after the resurrection.

Within myself I am aware of stresses, of fears, of burdens – related to what’s going on in my life as an individual and related to what is going on in the world.  But I am also aware of a deeper place – a place of peace, where God dwells within me.  God invites us, again and again, with his infinite patience to drop down into that deep place and find him.  He is the shepherd who follows us, who seeks us out and rejoices when he finds us.  He longs to hold us in his embrace.  And the truth is, he is always embracing us. But we need to find the stillness within - drop down into that stillness and rest in him.  Rest in peace, hope and love.  That is our home.

Isaiah 2 verse 5, at the end of our passage, says: “Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord” As we begin advent can we find the light within us, and about us, and walk in it?

At Christmas God dropped down from heaven to dwell with us.  Can we drop down into the depth of God within us during this season of advent, so that we can bring light and hope into the dark times we are experiencing?

We live in fear because we do not follow our deepest desire, our deepest yearning – to be in the house of love – in God.  At the beginning of advent be reminded – every day, every hour, every minute – God invites you there, God waits for you there, God seeks you there.  Let’s follow our deepest desire and find God – find peace, hope and love – this Advent.