It seems to me that the Christmas lights go up earlier every year and they stay up longer after the event too. I don’t mind though I like the way they twinkle and sparkle in the deep, dark depths of winter. They give out a comforting glow amid the long dark nights and they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
They are, however, weak and pale in comparison to the light that blazed on the hillside when the shepherds were surprised by the angels. And even the brightest of our Christmas decorations are lost in the brightness of the star that guided the magi to Bethlehem.
Many of the Christmas lights that shine in the darkness of our city streets are put up by people who don’t know Jesus and if they have heard of him they consider him irrelevant in these modern times and yet ………..
God is able to use these lights to point the way to Jesus.
The lights shine in the dark and remind us of Jesus – The Light of the World.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
Today is Epiphany and we remember the visit of the magi to the new family of Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus. They came from distant lands and distant cultures. They were guided on their journey by light. A bright new star had appeared in the night sky and it shone out guiding and leading them onwards.
God is able to use starlight to point the way to Jesus – The Light of the World.
As well as being Epiphany today is also the 6th January. 19 years ago today at about half past one in the morning my big sister, Hazel, lost her battle against cancer and died whilst listening to passages from Isaiah.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
Hazel had been battling the disease for about two years. During this time she had massive surgery to remove the tumours and she gave birth and life to her second son. After his birth she had the chemotherapy that might have saved her had she agreed to receive it immediately after surgery but whilst she was still pregnant.
Despite the obvious high of a brand new life, Hazels illness was a dark time in the life of our family. She didn’t want to die and leave her young boys and we didn’t want to lose her. We prayed and we hoped. We celebrated her tiny improvements and we endured her many setbacks.
But it wasn’t all bleak. It wasn’t all dark. Hazels faith shone out like a beacon. She never once doubted that there was a higher purpose even though it was a mystery to all of us, she never asked ‘Why me?’ and if other folk voiced the question on her behalf she would respond with “why not?”.
In the moments before her death she asked for the Bible to be read to her and her final words were ‘I’m going home’.
It seems fitting to me that this woman of great faith gave up her fight and her life at Epiphany.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
In the days, weeks and months following her death mum and I drew great strength from a song by Glenda Vaccaro. The song talks about how life is like a small boat tossed about on a great sea and Jesus is our lighthouse guiding us, watching over us, keeping us safe. This song though a bit cheesy sustained us, it kept us sane and it kept us focussed on Jesus even through the blackest days.
God is able to use the light of faith in a dying woman and the words of a corny song to point us to Jesus – The Light of the World.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
Living in the middle of Nottingham can be a dismal experience. With shootings and stabbings and a general feeling of uneasiness it can feel dark and bleak. For most of us who live in Radford the darker elements of crime and anti-social behaviour form a backdrop to our lives but occasionally it encroaches on our existence in an unwelcome and frightening way. When this happens it is easy to see the area where we live in mostly negative terms.
Sometime ago when returning to Nottingham from a trip up North in driving rain and semi darkness I was struck by an amazing sight. There before me were the Radford flats bathed in a pool of light flooding through a gap in the dark clouds and framed by a dazzling rainbow. The sight was so beautiful that I was transfixed. I was reminded that God is at work in even the darkest places and when seen in his light even the mundane can be transformed into something beautiful.
God is able to use the sunlight to point to his Son Jesus – The Light of the World.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
Our first reading from Isaiah provides us with a picture of hope beyond darkness. The original hearers of Isaiah’s words are called to act in response to the light that will come even though it is preceded by darkness. They are asked to take the long view towards the time when the age of the Messiah dawns on the land and a reversal of circumstances is introduced. When the Messiah comes darkness will be turned to light and instead of the Israelites being taken off in exile to foreign lands, people from those lands will come to Zion.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
We are living on the other side of this event. In the reading from Matthew the prophetic words of Isaiah have become a reality. The Messiah has been born into the world and visitors came from foreign lands to worship Him. The age of the Messiah is begun and His Light shines in the darkness.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
We are called to act in response to the Light that has been revealed to us in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus – The Light of the World.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
We are a people called to be light in places of darkness. Pointing the way to Jesus – The Light of the World.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
God calls us to reflect His light in our relationships, in our communities, in our places of work and our schools. We are called to be light when we go down the pub, or when we do our shopping. We are called to be light in every aspect of our lives because we are people living in the Light of Jesus – The Light of the World.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”.
It seems a bit of a tall order doesn’t it? Certainly my light seems a bit dim and pointless on many occasions especially if I’m feeling grumpy. Shane and the kids could I’m sure provide you with a long list of times and occasions when I have failed to be light or reflect God’s light into the situation at hand. But just because we’re not always very good at it doesn’t mean that we will be let off from trying.
God is able to take our best efforts and our weakest efforts and use us to point to Jesus – The light of the World.
Just think about that for a minute. Our God who is able to command light into existence, who is able to use stars and angels to announce the birth of His Son uses us with our weaknesses and our inconsistencies to point others to Jesus – The Light of the World.
And what do we need to do to share in this amazing privilege?
We just need to listen to the guiding and nudging of the Spirit, be willing to be used in any situation we find ourselves in and just do the best we can leaving the rest up to God.
Each of us has a story to share. Stories about Gods light shining in and through the dark times. Stories about how God has changed and transformed our lives until the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Stories about answered prayers and prayers that still await longed for answers. In recent months we have looked at what it means to offer true hospitality and we took part in the Big Conversation, telling our stories to each other and to those who not yet know Jesus can help to build community and point the way to Jesus.
Our individual stories are woven together by our Creator God until we become more than the sum of our parts, more than a collection of individuals getting together for a short time once a week.
We can become a living, breathing community, a lighthouse in a dark place shining the Christ light for all to see. We can become a place and a people who offer the hope that the darkness will not last forever because the light of Jesus shines in and through us.
God can and does use us, flawed and unfinished though we may be, to point the way to Jesus – The Light of The World.
"Arise, shine, for your light has come”. Amen.
Showing posts with label Sermon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sermon. Show all posts
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Saturday, 29 September 2007
The Lords Prayer and the Friend at Midnight.
A sermon for Sunday 26th August. Luke 11: 1-10
If I were to ask you all individually what your experience of prayer has been like throughout your lifetime I am sure that I would get a number of very different responses. I would expect that we all have different experiences of prayer in our personal spiritual journeys. There may be mountain top experiences or times that prayer seems drier than the driest of deserts.
Some of us may be so in tune with God that we pray almost continually and are not even aware that we are doing so. For others finding even five minutes to spend with God in the midst of our busyness is a challenge and one which we often fail.
Prayer can be a blessing or a burden. It can raise us to the throne of heaven or bounce off the ceiling, leaving us wondering if it isn’t all just a waste of time. So how should we pray? Is there a right way, some formula that will always guarantee us success?
Lets go back to the words of Jesus as reported by Luke in this mornings Gospel reading.
Jesus has just been praying when his disciples come to him and ask that he teach them how to pray ‘just as John taught his disciples’. It was customary at that time for Rabbi’s to teach their followers a simple prayer to use in their own daily devotions. John had done so and now the disciples ask the same thing of Jesus.
Jesus replies with the familiar words of what we now call ‘The Lords Prayer’.
2 He said to them, "When you pray, say:
'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3Give us each day our daily bread.
4Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.' "
The prayer begins by addressing God as ‘Father’. This reflects the intimacy of the relationship between Jesus and God and hints at the intimacy that we too can have with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is not a remote God that we are talking to - this is a loving Father – our loving Father.
The next line is ‘hallowed be your name’. This can cause some confusion especially if the word is misheard as ‘Harold’, why is God called Harold? The word ‘hallowed’ means sanctified, blessed, and consecrated. In Hebrew culture to speak of a person’s name was to talk about the whole character of that person. Similarly today we talk about someone who is striving to ‘clear their name’. God has revealed to us his Holy nature and for us to pray for His name to be hallowed – sanctified and blessed – is for us to recognise his nature, to know him as he is and so to love and to trust him. It also expresses the desire for the true nature of God to be known throughout the world.
This is a theme followed up by the words ‘Your Kingdom Come’. Jesus came to bring about Gods heavenly kingdom on earth and here he instructs us to continue to pray for its establishment.
The first part of the prayer then is taken up with honouring God, only when we give God his proper place will other things and needs fall into their proper place.
The prayer now moves on to discuss our own needs – daily bread – or enough of everything to satisfy each days needs. This has echoes of the Exodus when God provided manna in the desert – sufficient for each day. In today’s old testament reading we heard how if the manna was kept until the next day it would spoil, go mouldy and be unfit to eat. So we are not to worry about the unknown future but to live each day to the full and trust that God has it covered.
In the first part of the prayer we focussed on the purity and sacredness of God and now we bring our imperfectness, our fallenness to him and pray for the forgiveness of our sins. Yet we are at the same time reminded that we must also forgive others.
The prayer ends sooner than the version contained in Matthew with the plea to guard us against temptation. Temptation means more than just the seduction of sin - it means any testing situation – any trial – that we must face. Some of these testing times can be avoided but for those that we must pass through we can be sure of God guarding us, guiding us and bringing us through safely. Our God is not a remote God – he is our loving Father.
After teaching them the prayer Jesus goes on to tell them a parable.
5 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'
7"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Hospitality in the Hebrew culture is a sacred duty. It is not enough to offer a visitor just enough – the guest must be confronted with an ample abundance. So your friend has just arrived late and the cupboard is bare - there is nothing to give him. What do you do? There is no 24hour Spar – the only option is to go and ask a friend. The friend is asleep. The house would probably have been a one room structure with a single window. There would have been a raised platform with a fire burning on it and the family and the family’s livestock would be huddled together on rush mats. To disturb one person would be to wake the whole household. Your friend tells you to go away. Jesus goes on to say that if the man won’t get up because he is a friend he will get up because of the mans bold persistence or shamelessness and supply everything that is needed.
At first glance it would appear that we should be persistent in prayer and if we don’t immediately get what it is we asked for we should batter away at God until we get what we want.
This, of course, is not true. The parable only makes sense when taken in the context of the prayer before it and when contrasted to the words that follow it. Jesus says:
9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Jesus is telling us that if an unwilling householder can in the end be coerced by a friends shameless persistence into giving him what he needs, how much more will God who is a loving Father supply all his children’s needs?
God – who wills to answer our petitions is contrasted with an earthly person who is indifferent to his friends’ pleas.
A request for physical bread is contrasted with the plea for the food of the kingdom.
If the plea for earthly benefit eventually produces a response how much more will God, our loving Father, respond to those requests for things that are in accordance to his will?
The Lords Prayer gives us a template to show us how to pray and together with the parable it gives us an insight into why we pray.
Prayer is about relationship. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we are invited to have an intimate relationship with God.
Our God is not a remote God but a loving Father – our loving Father. When we love someone we spend time with them, we tell them about ourselves, our needs and desires, our hopes and our dreams. When we love someone we listen to them as they reveal their innermost selves to us. We grow together in a bond of love and trust.
This is what prayer is!
Of course there are many things that can get in the way of our relationships from silly misunderstandings to betrayal and mistrust. And there are many things that can get in the way of our relationship with God.
Our busyness can squeeze time with God to the margins of our day, feelings of guilt or worthlessness can make us reluctant to approach a perfect and holy God or we can feel that our lives are just to messy to bring before the purity of God. But God is not a remote God – He is a loving Father – our loving Father.
Those of you who have or have had close contact with young children will know that when a child has fallen down in the mud and is crying what they need is a hug and some reassurance. Generally we don’t wait until they are cleaned up and have got themselves together before we stoop down to them, scoop them up and comfort them.
If even we with all our imperfections can love one another – how much more will our loving Father love us. When we come into his presence dirty and distressed, feeling unworthy or hopeless Our God, Our loving Father will stoop down and scoop us up and give us comfort. Our God is not a remote God but a loving Father, our loving Father.
What’s more unlike our earthly relationships which sometimes go disastrously wrong, God, by his very nature, will not let us down. He will not betray us like our friends can. He will not abuse us as human parents sometimes do. He will not abandon us because of our many failings like some we may have trusted have done.
God is faithful and just and will forgive us over and over again. We need not be afraid to come into his perfect presence whatever state we are in we just need to come.
If you struggle to find time to spend with God for whatever reason start small and grab the opportunity for longer prayer times whenever they present themselves. If you only have a few minutes in the morning then perhaps memorise or write down a verse from the Bible or a phrase from the liturgy we say week by week on a Sunday. Take this verse with you throughout the day, let it swirl around and inhabit your mind. If you are suddenly presented with twenty, or ten or even five minutes during the course of the day then grab it and use it to talk with God. Don’t worry for a moment about the dishes in the sink or the mess in the living room or the mess in your life. Just lets stop, and rest, let God be God and let him hold us and heal us and comfort us. Our God is not a remote God. He is a loving Father. He is our loving Father.
Amen.
If I were to ask you all individually what your experience of prayer has been like throughout your lifetime I am sure that I would get a number of very different responses. I would expect that we all have different experiences of prayer in our personal spiritual journeys. There may be mountain top experiences or times that prayer seems drier than the driest of deserts.
Some of us may be so in tune with God that we pray almost continually and are not even aware that we are doing so. For others finding even five minutes to spend with God in the midst of our busyness is a challenge and one which we often fail.
Prayer can be a blessing or a burden. It can raise us to the throne of heaven or bounce off the ceiling, leaving us wondering if it isn’t all just a waste of time. So how should we pray? Is there a right way, some formula that will always guarantee us success?
Lets go back to the words of Jesus as reported by Luke in this mornings Gospel reading.
Jesus has just been praying when his disciples come to him and ask that he teach them how to pray ‘just as John taught his disciples’. It was customary at that time for Rabbi’s to teach their followers a simple prayer to use in their own daily devotions. John had done so and now the disciples ask the same thing of Jesus.
Jesus replies with the familiar words of what we now call ‘The Lords Prayer’.
2 He said to them, "When you pray, say:
'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3Give us each day our daily bread.
4Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.' "
The prayer begins by addressing God as ‘Father’. This reflects the intimacy of the relationship between Jesus and God and hints at the intimacy that we too can have with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is not a remote God that we are talking to - this is a loving Father – our loving Father.
The next line is ‘hallowed be your name’. This can cause some confusion especially if the word is misheard as ‘Harold’, why is God called Harold? The word ‘hallowed’ means sanctified, blessed, and consecrated. In Hebrew culture to speak of a person’s name was to talk about the whole character of that person. Similarly today we talk about someone who is striving to ‘clear their name’. God has revealed to us his Holy nature and for us to pray for His name to be hallowed – sanctified and blessed – is for us to recognise his nature, to know him as he is and so to love and to trust him. It also expresses the desire for the true nature of God to be known throughout the world.
This is a theme followed up by the words ‘Your Kingdom Come’. Jesus came to bring about Gods heavenly kingdom on earth and here he instructs us to continue to pray for its establishment.
The first part of the prayer then is taken up with honouring God, only when we give God his proper place will other things and needs fall into their proper place.
The prayer now moves on to discuss our own needs – daily bread – or enough of everything to satisfy each days needs. This has echoes of the Exodus when God provided manna in the desert – sufficient for each day. In today’s old testament reading we heard how if the manna was kept until the next day it would spoil, go mouldy and be unfit to eat. So we are not to worry about the unknown future but to live each day to the full and trust that God has it covered.
In the first part of the prayer we focussed on the purity and sacredness of God and now we bring our imperfectness, our fallenness to him and pray for the forgiveness of our sins. Yet we are at the same time reminded that we must also forgive others.
The prayer ends sooner than the version contained in Matthew with the plea to guard us against temptation. Temptation means more than just the seduction of sin - it means any testing situation – any trial – that we must face. Some of these testing times can be avoided but for those that we must pass through we can be sure of God guarding us, guiding us and bringing us through safely. Our God is not a remote God – he is our loving Father.
After teaching them the prayer Jesus goes on to tell them a parable.
5 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'
7"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Hospitality in the Hebrew culture is a sacred duty. It is not enough to offer a visitor just enough – the guest must be confronted with an ample abundance. So your friend has just arrived late and the cupboard is bare - there is nothing to give him. What do you do? There is no 24hour Spar – the only option is to go and ask a friend. The friend is asleep. The house would probably have been a one room structure with a single window. There would have been a raised platform with a fire burning on it and the family and the family’s livestock would be huddled together on rush mats. To disturb one person would be to wake the whole household. Your friend tells you to go away. Jesus goes on to say that if the man won’t get up because he is a friend he will get up because of the mans bold persistence or shamelessness and supply everything that is needed.
At first glance it would appear that we should be persistent in prayer and if we don’t immediately get what it is we asked for we should batter away at God until we get what we want.
This, of course, is not true. The parable only makes sense when taken in the context of the prayer before it and when contrasted to the words that follow it. Jesus says:
9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Jesus is telling us that if an unwilling householder can in the end be coerced by a friends shameless persistence into giving him what he needs, how much more will God who is a loving Father supply all his children’s needs?
God – who wills to answer our petitions is contrasted with an earthly person who is indifferent to his friends’ pleas.
A request for physical bread is contrasted with the plea for the food of the kingdom.
If the plea for earthly benefit eventually produces a response how much more will God, our loving Father, respond to those requests for things that are in accordance to his will?
The Lords Prayer gives us a template to show us how to pray and together with the parable it gives us an insight into why we pray.
Prayer is about relationship. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we are invited to have an intimate relationship with God.
Our God is not a remote God but a loving Father – our loving Father. When we love someone we spend time with them, we tell them about ourselves, our needs and desires, our hopes and our dreams. When we love someone we listen to them as they reveal their innermost selves to us. We grow together in a bond of love and trust.
This is what prayer is!
Of course there are many things that can get in the way of our relationships from silly misunderstandings to betrayal and mistrust. And there are many things that can get in the way of our relationship with God.
Our busyness can squeeze time with God to the margins of our day, feelings of guilt or worthlessness can make us reluctant to approach a perfect and holy God or we can feel that our lives are just to messy to bring before the purity of God. But God is not a remote God – He is a loving Father – our loving Father.
Those of you who have or have had close contact with young children will know that when a child has fallen down in the mud and is crying what they need is a hug and some reassurance. Generally we don’t wait until they are cleaned up and have got themselves together before we stoop down to them, scoop them up and comfort them.
If even we with all our imperfections can love one another – how much more will our loving Father love us. When we come into his presence dirty and distressed, feeling unworthy or hopeless Our God, Our loving Father will stoop down and scoop us up and give us comfort. Our God is not a remote God but a loving Father, our loving Father.
What’s more unlike our earthly relationships which sometimes go disastrously wrong, God, by his very nature, will not let us down. He will not betray us like our friends can. He will not abuse us as human parents sometimes do. He will not abandon us because of our many failings like some we may have trusted have done.
God is faithful and just and will forgive us over and over again. We need not be afraid to come into his perfect presence whatever state we are in we just need to come.
If you struggle to find time to spend with God for whatever reason start small and grab the opportunity for longer prayer times whenever they present themselves. If you only have a few minutes in the morning then perhaps memorise or write down a verse from the Bible or a phrase from the liturgy we say week by week on a Sunday. Take this verse with you throughout the day, let it swirl around and inhabit your mind. If you are suddenly presented with twenty, or ten or even five minutes during the course of the day then grab it and use it to talk with God. Don’t worry for a moment about the dishes in the sink or the mess in the living room or the mess in your life. Just lets stop, and rest, let God be God and let him hold us and heal us and comfort us. Our God is not a remote God. He is a loving Father. He is our loving Father.
Amen.
Wednesday, 4 April 2007
Mothering Sunday Exodus 2:1-10, John 19: 25-27 18th March 2007
A mother places her three month old son into a reed basket and leaves him in the river. The baby’s big sister looks on until the baby is found.
A teenage girl arrives home to find the house all locked up and nobody home. She sits shivering and worrying on the doorstep for several hours before her mother returns.
A family gather around to celebrate a happy event. Mum and dad fuss proudly around their young offspring. Everybody is happy.
A father stands at the grave of his wife. His two young sons look bewildered at the mound of freshly dug dirt.
A mother stands at the foot of a cross, watching her son die a cruel and seemingly unjust death, listening to his final words, she weeps.
So here we are, another Mothering Sunday sermon, and I wonder what it is you were expecting? I wonder what it is my mum, sitting over there, is expecting – no pressure then!
If we were to take a quick poll I think we would find as many different experiences of mother as there are people here. Some will think of their own mother, others will think about themselves as mother.
As we can see by the snap shots described at the beginning, there are many and varied experiences of this thing named ‘Mother’.
Some experiences are painful, for some of us ‘Mother’ is not a word that holds much comfort. Perhaps we grew up without our mum, or she was so into her own needs that she failed to notice ours.
Some are good experiences, a mum that always seemed to be there when we needed her, a mum that smiled and laughed with us and taught us the value of love.
And what about our experiences of being ‘Mother’?
Some long to have children but choices and circumstances and nature have conspired to render it impossible.
Some have lost children, in infancy, in adulthood or before they were even born.
Some have children but the baggage they carry from their own childhood makes being a parent so hard, sometimes too hard. And often the cycle of abuse and neglect is continued on to a new generation.
Some take to parenting like ducks to water, rising to every new challenge and loving every part of it.
And then there are the men. At this time of year it is easy to overlook the feelings and needs of men. They too have good and bad experiences of ‘mother’ in a variety of contexts but the focus seems always to be on the women and the men folk barely get a look in.
So along with all of these differing experiences come a number of different expectations.
I have been known to avoid church on Mothering Sunday, especially before Peter and Ellie, came along. I didn’t want to hear about how mums are great and how we should celebrate them. My childhood left me with some issues to deal with and for a while I didn’t feel I had anything to celebrate when it came to the relationship with my mum. Today things are very different and I don’t know what I would do without her – I even find myself wishing sometimes that we lived a lot closer to each other!
The point remains though, that some would rather avoid church on this day altogether rather than sit through a service that only highlights the pain of their situation.
As I was preparing this I was very aware of two families. One of a young woman whose mother died last week and of another where the youngest child, a girl of three, died after a sudden illness. For these families Mothering Sunday this year will have a new and painful resonance as they contemplate their losses.
So with an awareness that one persons joyous occasion maybe another persons nightmare – where do we fit in? What is our place as a church and as individuals in the bigger picture?
Lets look again at the reading from Exodus.
At first glance this could be a reading about abandonment. The mum puts her little baby son into a basket in the river and runs away. We can only guess at the emotion this mother felt as she left her baby and ran away, perhaps praying that some how everything would turn out ok.
In the extract we don’t get any of the background to this action – just that it happened.
The background is that the king had demanded that every Hebrew male newborn should be killed. He was worried that the Hebrew numbers were growing way too fast and the Egyptians had all forgotten about Joseph and what he had done for them.
So this Hebrew mum had hidden her little boy for three months before she left him in the river. She just wanted her son to have the best chance of survival. So she left him where he would be found by elite Egyptian women in the hope that one of them would take care of him.
She left Miriam, the older sister, to keep watch and make sure he was safe and in the end everything did turn out ok. Her little boy grew up to be the one to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery. A happy ending.
Moses became part of a new family and grew up healthy, happy and loved. Modern families are made up in a variety of ways, some of that variety is reflected in our congregation, and we don’t need to venture very far into the community to find more examples.
We are all part of Gods family and as such we have an obligation to support one another, love one another and to be there for one another. In the good times, in the bad times, all of the time.
Come with me for a moment, back to that cross on a lonely hill outside the city walls. Listen – Jesus is speaking to his mother and his closest friend –
Dear woman, here is your son,"
"Here is your mother."
This verse is often discussed in the context of John taking on the care of Mary as she advances in years. As the oldest son this would have been an obligation borne by Jesus. Here he passes that obligation to John.
But – this relationship is not all one sided. Jesus does not just address John; he also speaks to his mum and gives his friend into her safe-keeping.
Jesus has created a new family unit and in doing so provides for the needs of all concerned.
Not all of us have good experiences of motherhood and mothering. So who is responsible for those who didn’t have mothers, or who had bad experiences?
Who is responsible for the lost, the un-mothered?
Who is responsible for the hurting and the vulnerable?
Who is going to care for those who grieve?
Jesus gives an example, in the midst of his own pain, he reaches out to provide his best friend with a mother
He reaches out and provides his mother with someone to care for her and someone for her to take care of.
Here is a reciprocal arrangement of mutual love and support, so that everyone has somebody to look out for and somebody looking out for them.
Who is responsible? We are.
Whose job is it? It is ours.
We are all responsible for each other. We are a family and like all families we are occasionally dysfunctional, but that shouldn’t discourage us from doing all we can for each other.
But it doesn’t stop there. It isn’t enough that we take care of each other within these walls we all so need to bring God’s love to the hurting world on our doorstep and in our local community.
Listen again to the words of Jesus – is there a message for us in our situation 2000 years later?
Dear woman, here is your son,"
"Here is your mother."
St Peters – here is Radford.
Radford – here are people who will care for you.
People of St Peters, here are those amongst you, sitting next to you, who need you. Look after each other care for each other, support one another, nurture one another, love one another.
A teenage girl arrives home to find the house all locked up and nobody home. She sits shivering and worrying on the doorstep for several hours before her mother returns.
A family gather around to celebrate a happy event. Mum and dad fuss proudly around their young offspring. Everybody is happy.
A father stands at the grave of his wife. His two young sons look bewildered at the mound of freshly dug dirt.
A mother stands at the foot of a cross, watching her son die a cruel and seemingly unjust death, listening to his final words, she weeps.
So here we are, another Mothering Sunday sermon, and I wonder what it is you were expecting? I wonder what it is my mum, sitting over there, is expecting – no pressure then!
If we were to take a quick poll I think we would find as many different experiences of mother as there are people here. Some will think of their own mother, others will think about themselves as mother.
As we can see by the snap shots described at the beginning, there are many and varied experiences of this thing named ‘Mother’.
Some experiences are painful, for some of us ‘Mother’ is not a word that holds much comfort. Perhaps we grew up without our mum, or she was so into her own needs that she failed to notice ours.
Some are good experiences, a mum that always seemed to be there when we needed her, a mum that smiled and laughed with us and taught us the value of love.
And what about our experiences of being ‘Mother’?
Some long to have children but choices and circumstances and nature have conspired to render it impossible.
Some have lost children, in infancy, in adulthood or before they were even born.
Some have children but the baggage they carry from their own childhood makes being a parent so hard, sometimes too hard. And often the cycle of abuse and neglect is continued on to a new generation.
Some take to parenting like ducks to water, rising to every new challenge and loving every part of it.
And then there are the men. At this time of year it is easy to overlook the feelings and needs of men. They too have good and bad experiences of ‘mother’ in a variety of contexts but the focus seems always to be on the women and the men folk barely get a look in.
So along with all of these differing experiences come a number of different expectations.
I have been known to avoid church on Mothering Sunday, especially before Peter and Ellie, came along. I didn’t want to hear about how mums are great and how we should celebrate them. My childhood left me with some issues to deal with and for a while I didn’t feel I had anything to celebrate when it came to the relationship with my mum. Today things are very different and I don’t know what I would do without her – I even find myself wishing sometimes that we lived a lot closer to each other!
The point remains though, that some would rather avoid church on this day altogether rather than sit through a service that only highlights the pain of their situation.
As I was preparing this I was very aware of two families. One of a young woman whose mother died last week and of another where the youngest child, a girl of three, died after a sudden illness. For these families Mothering Sunday this year will have a new and painful resonance as they contemplate their losses.
So with an awareness that one persons joyous occasion maybe another persons nightmare – where do we fit in? What is our place as a church and as individuals in the bigger picture?
Lets look again at the reading from Exodus.
At first glance this could be a reading about abandonment. The mum puts her little baby son into a basket in the river and runs away. We can only guess at the emotion this mother felt as she left her baby and ran away, perhaps praying that some how everything would turn out ok.
In the extract we don’t get any of the background to this action – just that it happened.
The background is that the king had demanded that every Hebrew male newborn should be killed. He was worried that the Hebrew numbers were growing way too fast and the Egyptians had all forgotten about Joseph and what he had done for them.
So this Hebrew mum had hidden her little boy for three months before she left him in the river. She just wanted her son to have the best chance of survival. So she left him where he would be found by elite Egyptian women in the hope that one of them would take care of him.
She left Miriam, the older sister, to keep watch and make sure he was safe and in the end everything did turn out ok. Her little boy grew up to be the one to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery. A happy ending.
Moses became part of a new family and grew up healthy, happy and loved. Modern families are made up in a variety of ways, some of that variety is reflected in our congregation, and we don’t need to venture very far into the community to find more examples.
We are all part of Gods family and as such we have an obligation to support one another, love one another and to be there for one another. In the good times, in the bad times, all of the time.
Come with me for a moment, back to that cross on a lonely hill outside the city walls. Listen – Jesus is speaking to his mother and his closest friend –
Dear woman, here is your son,"
"Here is your mother."
This verse is often discussed in the context of John taking on the care of Mary as she advances in years. As the oldest son this would have been an obligation borne by Jesus. Here he passes that obligation to John.
But – this relationship is not all one sided. Jesus does not just address John; he also speaks to his mum and gives his friend into her safe-keeping.
Jesus has created a new family unit and in doing so provides for the needs of all concerned.
Not all of us have good experiences of motherhood and mothering. So who is responsible for those who didn’t have mothers, or who had bad experiences?
Who is responsible for the lost, the un-mothered?
Who is responsible for the hurting and the vulnerable?
Who is going to care for those who grieve?
Jesus gives an example, in the midst of his own pain, he reaches out to provide his best friend with a mother
He reaches out and provides his mother with someone to care for her and someone for her to take care of.
Here is a reciprocal arrangement of mutual love and support, so that everyone has somebody to look out for and somebody looking out for them.
Who is responsible? We are.
Whose job is it? It is ours.
We are all responsible for each other. We are a family and like all families we are occasionally dysfunctional, but that shouldn’t discourage us from doing all we can for each other.
But it doesn’t stop there. It isn’t enough that we take care of each other within these walls we all so need to bring God’s love to the hurting world on our doorstep and in our local community.
Listen again to the words of Jesus – is there a message for us in our situation 2000 years later?
Dear woman, here is your son,"
"Here is your mother."
St Peters – here is Radford.
Radford – here are people who will care for you.
People of St Peters, here are those amongst you, sitting next to you, who need you. Look after each other care for each other, support one another, nurture one another, love one another.
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
My First Sermon
Well the day is almost upon us - the day I deliver my first sermon as a reader-in-training.
The reading is Hebrews 7:23-28.
Can you imagine what it was like to make animal sacrifices at the Temple day after day?
I don’t know about you but I find it really difficult. This kind of sacrifice is outside of our experience. We are separated from it by time, geography and culture. We can only try to grasp what it might have been like. The sight of animals being bound and ritually killed, the sounds they might have made. The smells of animals and people and death and burning.
Every day the High Priest would look on while a lamb was butchered and burnt. One in the morning, and one in the evening. One for his own sins and one for the nations sins. Every day. Day after day, year in and year out.
It was a bloody and messy business and it happened on every day of the year. On special occasions, such as the Day of Atonement, the people would bring their own sacrifices to offer for their own sins. Even more blood, even more mess. Year after year.
So day after day the High Priest made his sacrifices for himself and his people until the day he died. As we read in our extract from the letter to the Hebrews – there were many of these priests because death prevented them from continuing in Office. After his death another Levite would take over and continue to make these sacrifices year in, year out, month after month, week after week and day after day.
So what are you thinking?
I’m thinking ‘what did that achieve?’, ‘what difference did it make?’
The point of the system of animal sacrifices was to two-fold. Firstly it kept the sin of the nation and a persons own sin ever before them. The people were forever and constantly reminded that they were sinful, and that sin was a serious matter. Secondly, the sacrifices provided a limited forgiveness, it was a sign of the peoples sorrow, an apology, a recognition of their sin and an acknowledgement of God’s mercy since the animals sacrificed came from what God had given to them.
Since the sacrifice was repeated every day, year after year, we can assume that really it was a pretty inefficient method. The priests were not able to stop the people from sinning or fully absolve their guilt since they too were guilty. The priests were called to live a sinless life but they, like us, were weak and unable to keep themselves from sin but God was still able to use them and many were influential in the Old Testament story.
Under the old covenant priests had a useful but limited ministry with mixed results. They could not remove the peoples sin and sooner or later, no matter how good they were, they died.
Something – someone else was required. A new covenant, a new method, a new way of doing things, a new Priest.
The Jewish people had waited a long time for a new priest, even longer than we here at St Peters.
The new priest was not of the tribe of Levi, Though fully human He did not sin and even though He died – He lives still.
The New Priest is Jesus.
Jesus became the sacrifice – not only for the Jewish people but for the whole world. He is the sacrifice for your sin and for my sin.
Unlike the sacrifices of the days gone by Jesus has no need to offer Himself time and time again. He does not need to die every day.
Jesus is both the Priest and the sacrifice. He gives Himself, once, for all people, for all time. His giving of Himself, His sacrifice, is perfect because He is perfect.
Jesus became the Lamb without stain or blemish. The perfect offering. The perfect sacrifice. His death was bloody and messy and we can only imagine what it must have been like. The sight, the sounds, the smells of a violent death.
His sacrifice was perfect because He is perfect. Because He is perfect Jesus does not need to make a sacrifice first for himself and then for us and there is no need for repetition. Jesus does not need to die again and again, day after day. His sacrifice is made once for all, for the sins of the whole world. For your sin and for my sin. His sacrifice is extremely efficient and effective. Jesus death removes the stain of sin from humanity. His death frees us from sin, past, present and future.
In the risen and ever living Jesus we have everything we need in a High Priest. He is holy, pure, set apart from sinners and exalted above the Heavens.
Jesus lived a holy and pure life, dedicated to God, and though He lived and worked amongst sinful people, he remained blameless, free from sin.
Jesus lived a life on earth with all of its joys and all of its sorrows. He wept at the death of a friend, he lost his temper with the traders in the temple, he shared meals with friends. Yet through all that life threw at him he remained faithful to God, faithful to his purpose and ultimately faithful to us.
Verse 25 of our passage says that Jesus forever lives to intercede for us. It’s easy to miss what this is getting at. What it is the author is actually saying.
Put straightforwardly Jesus is always praying for us. Constantly and without end. He lives to pray for us. He lives to bring our needs to God. He lives to ask God to forgive us our wrong-doing. He died to save us from sin and now He lives to save us from sin. He is our sacrifice and our priest. And he is able to do all this because he knows what it means to live on this earth. He knows the trials and the frustrations, he knows the challenges and the struggles. He understands our successes and our deepest failings. He knows because he lived it too.
So, what are you thinking?
I’m thinking ‘what did that achieve?’, ‘what difference did it make?’
Jesus is our eternal priest and as such there is now no need for an endless string of earthly intercessors to make sacrifice first for their own sin and then for ours. Jesus death and resurrection marks a turning point in history. We go from BC to AD, from the Old Covenant to the New covenant from animal sacrifice to a sacrifice of thanks and praise.
Under the law of the Old Covenant none could be made perfect but now all who come to Christ are made perfect in Him. The old system of animal sacrifices brought a temporary relief from sin, an easing of the conscience, but Christ’s death brings freedom from sin for eternity.
The priests of the Old Covenant were weak and sinful and eventually died but Jesus lives forever. His priesthood never ends.
Although Jesus made His sacrifice a time and a half ago in a far off land, in a far off culture, it is not a miss it and its gone event. His offering of Himself was, and still is, made once for all, for all time. It is not stuck in a particular time, or a particular culture or a particular people. It is now, it is for you and for me, for Radford and Nottingham and for all who would come to sit at Jesus feet.
We still make our sacrifice week after week, year after year, ours is a sacrifice of praise. The Old Covenant animal sacrifices were costly, giving up precious animals was not cheap, and they always gave the best, without spot or blemish. For us too, our sacrifice of praise can be costly. We come to praise God when we want to and when we don’t. We come when there is nothing better to do and when we would rather be elsewhere. We come not because of who we are but because of who God is.
We come not to ease our conscience for the sins of the previous week. We come not because we hope to somehow earn a little forgiveness. We come not to earn brownie points with our church leaders or God.
We come because Jesus invites us to. We come to remember that we live in the grace of God bought for us by Christ’s perfect offering of Himself. We come in praise and thanksgiving for the hope we have in Jesus.
In the Eucharistic service Jesus invites us to come and sit with him as his disciples sat with him in that upper room so many years ago. We gather around and share a meal with Jesus, our friend and our redeemer, our sacrifice and our priest. Like millions of Christians before us we share in the bread and wine, living symbols of Christ’s selfless act of love.
We add another act of remembrance to the long line of similar acts stretching back to that upper room, where Jesus gathered with His friends and said ‘do this in remembrance of me’.
Amen
The reading is Hebrews 7:23-28.
Can you imagine what it was like to make animal sacrifices at the Temple day after day?
I don’t know about you but I find it really difficult. This kind of sacrifice is outside of our experience. We are separated from it by time, geography and culture. We can only try to grasp what it might have been like. The sight of animals being bound and ritually killed, the sounds they might have made. The smells of animals and people and death and burning.
Every day the High Priest would look on while a lamb was butchered and burnt. One in the morning, and one in the evening. One for his own sins and one for the nations sins. Every day. Day after day, year in and year out.
It was a bloody and messy business and it happened on every day of the year. On special occasions, such as the Day of Atonement, the people would bring their own sacrifices to offer for their own sins. Even more blood, even more mess. Year after year.
So day after day the High Priest made his sacrifices for himself and his people until the day he died. As we read in our extract from the letter to the Hebrews – there were many of these priests because death prevented them from continuing in Office. After his death another Levite would take over and continue to make these sacrifices year in, year out, month after month, week after week and day after day.
So what are you thinking?
I’m thinking ‘what did that achieve?’, ‘what difference did it make?’
The point of the system of animal sacrifices was to two-fold. Firstly it kept the sin of the nation and a persons own sin ever before them. The people were forever and constantly reminded that they were sinful, and that sin was a serious matter. Secondly, the sacrifices provided a limited forgiveness, it was a sign of the peoples sorrow, an apology, a recognition of their sin and an acknowledgement of God’s mercy since the animals sacrificed came from what God had given to them.
Since the sacrifice was repeated every day, year after year, we can assume that really it was a pretty inefficient method. The priests were not able to stop the people from sinning or fully absolve their guilt since they too were guilty. The priests were called to live a sinless life but they, like us, were weak and unable to keep themselves from sin but God was still able to use them and many were influential in the Old Testament story.
Under the old covenant priests had a useful but limited ministry with mixed results. They could not remove the peoples sin and sooner or later, no matter how good they were, they died.
Something – someone else was required. A new covenant, a new method, a new way of doing things, a new Priest.
The Jewish people had waited a long time for a new priest, even longer than we here at St Peters.
The new priest was not of the tribe of Levi, Though fully human He did not sin and even though He died – He lives still.
The New Priest is Jesus.
Jesus became the sacrifice – not only for the Jewish people but for the whole world. He is the sacrifice for your sin and for my sin.
Unlike the sacrifices of the days gone by Jesus has no need to offer Himself time and time again. He does not need to die every day.
Jesus is both the Priest and the sacrifice. He gives Himself, once, for all people, for all time. His giving of Himself, His sacrifice, is perfect because He is perfect.
Jesus became the Lamb without stain or blemish. The perfect offering. The perfect sacrifice. His death was bloody and messy and we can only imagine what it must have been like. The sight, the sounds, the smells of a violent death.
His sacrifice was perfect because He is perfect. Because He is perfect Jesus does not need to make a sacrifice first for himself and then for us and there is no need for repetition. Jesus does not need to die again and again, day after day. His sacrifice is made once for all, for the sins of the whole world. For your sin and for my sin. His sacrifice is extremely efficient and effective. Jesus death removes the stain of sin from humanity. His death frees us from sin, past, present and future.
In the risen and ever living Jesus we have everything we need in a High Priest. He is holy, pure, set apart from sinners and exalted above the Heavens.
Jesus lived a holy and pure life, dedicated to God, and though He lived and worked amongst sinful people, he remained blameless, free from sin.
Jesus lived a life on earth with all of its joys and all of its sorrows. He wept at the death of a friend, he lost his temper with the traders in the temple, he shared meals with friends. Yet through all that life threw at him he remained faithful to God, faithful to his purpose and ultimately faithful to us.
Verse 25 of our passage says that Jesus forever lives to intercede for us. It’s easy to miss what this is getting at. What it is the author is actually saying.
Put straightforwardly Jesus is always praying for us. Constantly and without end. He lives to pray for us. He lives to bring our needs to God. He lives to ask God to forgive us our wrong-doing. He died to save us from sin and now He lives to save us from sin. He is our sacrifice and our priest. And he is able to do all this because he knows what it means to live on this earth. He knows the trials and the frustrations, he knows the challenges and the struggles. He understands our successes and our deepest failings. He knows because he lived it too.
So, what are you thinking?
I’m thinking ‘what did that achieve?’, ‘what difference did it make?’
Jesus is our eternal priest and as such there is now no need for an endless string of earthly intercessors to make sacrifice first for their own sin and then for ours. Jesus death and resurrection marks a turning point in history. We go from BC to AD, from the Old Covenant to the New covenant from animal sacrifice to a sacrifice of thanks and praise.
Under the law of the Old Covenant none could be made perfect but now all who come to Christ are made perfect in Him. The old system of animal sacrifices brought a temporary relief from sin, an easing of the conscience, but Christ’s death brings freedom from sin for eternity.
The priests of the Old Covenant were weak and sinful and eventually died but Jesus lives forever. His priesthood never ends.
Although Jesus made His sacrifice a time and a half ago in a far off land, in a far off culture, it is not a miss it and its gone event. His offering of Himself was, and still is, made once for all, for all time. It is not stuck in a particular time, or a particular culture or a particular people. It is now, it is for you and for me, for Radford and Nottingham and for all who would come to sit at Jesus feet.
We still make our sacrifice week after week, year after year, ours is a sacrifice of praise. The Old Covenant animal sacrifices were costly, giving up precious animals was not cheap, and they always gave the best, without spot or blemish. For us too, our sacrifice of praise can be costly. We come to praise God when we want to and when we don’t. We come when there is nothing better to do and when we would rather be elsewhere. We come not because of who we are but because of who God is.
We come not to ease our conscience for the sins of the previous week. We come not because we hope to somehow earn a little forgiveness. We come not to earn brownie points with our church leaders or God.
We come because Jesus invites us to. We come to remember that we live in the grace of God bought for us by Christ’s perfect offering of Himself. We come in praise and thanksgiving for the hope we have in Jesus.
In the Eucharistic service Jesus invites us to come and sit with him as his disciples sat with him in that upper room so many years ago. We gather around and share a meal with Jesus, our friend and our redeemer, our sacrifice and our priest. Like millions of Christians before us we share in the bread and wine, living symbols of Christ’s selfless act of love.
We add another act of remembrance to the long line of similar acts stretching back to that upper room, where Jesus gathered with His friends and said ‘do this in remembrance of me’.
Amen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)