Sunday 20 January 2013, Just Walk Across the Room, Week Two, Living in 3D, Luke 15, Bruce

Last week we introduced the idea of Just Walk Across the Room.  We talked about being willing to enter the Zone of the Unknown, and listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  We finished by encouraging each other to Just Go!  I wonder if you have noticed any change in the way that you have engaged with people in the last week?

Of course the question arises, what do we do if we have a conversation with someone?  What do we think about?  What do we pray about?  What do we do?

The suggestion this week is that we become 3D people.  First, we Develop friendships.  There is not enough friendship in this world.  There are many lonely folk.  God is calling us to leave our comfort zone, our cocoon which is so protective, and purposefully reach out to others.  You might call it living in “search mode”. 

Does this seem a little strange?  I think that this is what Jesus is pointing to in the three stories that he tells in Luke 15.  He has been meeting all sorts of people in the market place, and the good religious Pharisees are alarmed and upset at the characters that Jesus is spending time with.  They criticise him for it.  There is a sort of internal logic that runs: God is like us.  We can see that these folk are living disreputable lives, and we disapprove.  God obviously condemns them as well.  We are right to stay clear of them.

Jesus responds to this way of thinking by telling stories.  You can imagine a Pharisee turning over in his mind the stories, about a sheep, about a coin, about a son.  What did they all have in common?  Lostness.  And in each case the thing that was lost was precious to someone, and they went out of their way to find it.  There was effort, and commitment and involvement; a shepherd combing the countryside.  A woman sweeping each corner.  A father pining and keeping watch.  They all longed to find that which was lost.  And there was a narrowing down; a hundred sheep, ten coins, a wayward boy.  I wonder if the penny dropped, realisation dawned that Jesus is talking about how the Father loves everybody, indiscriminately, lavishly, without exception?

Jesus is here describing the motive force that is impelling him to go around meeting people – God loves the lost!  And so do we.  We value them by reaching out in friendship.  You might say that you do not have time for 100 new friends!  The truth is that they feel the same way!  If, however, we reach out to 100 folk, how wonderful it would be if we found one, or two, or perhaps three true friendships?

And so we walk across the room, literally or metaphorically.  And it may be that we are meeting someone we would not normally spend time with.  Someone with a different coloured skin, or who supports a different political party, or who seems much less cultured or polite than us(!), or perhaps seems richer or better dressed than us.  There are no strings attached.  This is not a trick or a technique.  We merely want to be friends, and that reflects the heart and character of God our Father.

And what do we do?  We Discover stories.  It is good to get to know people, and to value them for who they are.  I know some folk are worried that I am advocating that we should all be evangelists, plaguing people with gospel truths, whether they want to hear them or not.  Actually I am strongly suggesting that we do the opposite.  It’s good to listen.  We are not telling anyone what to do.  We are not saying that we have all the answers.  We are merely showing interest and sharing our Father’s concern.  We are prayerfully reaching out, but with no strings attached, and we are seeking to be ready for those precious, rare moments when it seems that someone might like to explore a relationship with Jesus.

This brings us to our third point, Discern appropriate next steps.  Keep praying in your heart all the time, looking for any promptings about the way forward.  As a friendship grows, we may find that they tell us their stories and that we are entrusted with their real concerns and needs.  In small groups this week we are going to consider “forks in the road”.  These are when we are faced with a choice about what to do or say.  As we were saying earlier, it’s good to listen.  There will be many times when the Spirit’s quiet prompting will be to say or do nothing, when it would be unhelpful to bring God into the conversation, or to invite someone to church.

Equally, there will be times when we are led to some small step forward.  We might perhaps lend a book or leaflet that has been a blessing to us or that we feel would be helpful.  We might offer some practical advice or help.  We might even offer to pray for them on a regular, consistent basis.

May we each have the Father’s yearning heart, the Son’s self-giving searching love, and the Spirit’s gentle caring impulse to reach out in friendship to all we meet and know.

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Discussion pointers for midweek groups

1. Can you identify either of the following patterns in your own life? 

‘cocooning’  (safe in a comfortable Christian circle of friends)

or ‘connecting’  (increasing love and desire to connect with people outside the faith)

2. Christ-followers need to be intentional about mixing with people who are far from God.  When/if you notice yourself veering towards a cocooning pattern, can you think of ways of moving towards connecting again?

3. Were there ways that you related particularly towards “Super” Dave’s story?  e.g.

·         negative religious experiences

·         witnessed a close friend submitting their lives to Christ

·         significant loss – eg death of a close relative or friend

·         lengthy journey to faith in God

4.    Bill Hybels says, “everyday seemingly insignificant things can become divine life-altering tools in the hands of compassionate Christ-followers.” 

What role did the following everyday things play in Dave’s journey toward God?

                books/tangible resources;                 time;          recreational interests

5.    Expressing a heartfelt emotion also played a major role in Dave coming to faith in Christ.  What did you think when Bill told Dave, “I’m not going to heaven without you, Supe”?

                How does this comment reflect a ‘bottom-line value of love” towards Dave?

Have you ever felt this way about someone in your own life? If so, did you tell them about it?  If you didn’t, what stopped you?

6.    Why do you think it is so important to understand people’s own stories before trying to

       engage in spiritual discussions with them?

Sunday 13 January 2013, Epiphany 2, The Baptism of Christ, The Greatest Gift, Bruce

Welcome to week one of a four week series entitled “Just Walk Across the Room”, and to a talk entitled “The Greatest Gift”.  We do this on the Sunday when we particularly remember the baptism of Jesus by his cousin John, when Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit and heard his Father’s voice.  Jesus is God’s great gift to us.  Some gifts have a real effect on us.  If I give you an alarm clock but you never set it or use it to wake you up, have your really “received” it?  If I give you a membership of a club, but you never bother to go, have you really received and valued the gift?  In the same way, God’s gift to us of his Son Jesus has a profound effect on any one who receives him.  In the words of our collect today, we “recognise him to be our Lord”.  Our attitudes and lifestyles will be changed as we become more like Jesus.

Epiphany is the missionary season of the church’s year.  We celebrate the glory of Christ shining out, and our part in it.  If we have received the gift, so we also recognise that we have the greatest gift to pass on.  The single greatest gift we can give people is an introduction to the God who created them, who loves them, who has a purpose for their life.

We are talking about evangelism.  I can imagine that this will raise all sorts of emotions, and possibly fears, in the hearts of many here this morning.  I am not talking about learning a method or a complicated formula, or going out of your way to be embarrassed or humiliated.  What if I were to suggest that it is as simple as taking a walk across a room?  The course is based on a book of that title written by Bill Hybels.  In it he relates the true story of an Afro-American man whose life was changed when a stranger extricated himself from the circle of friends he was with, walked across the room, and extended the hand of friendship.

How do we go about sharing the greatest gift?

The first point is to be willing to enter the Zone of the Unknown.  Just to talk to someone we do not know can seem uncomfortable.  Bill seems to suggest that there is a reserve we must overcome, and he is from Chicago.  We Brits might find it even harder!  We all find it easier in a group of familiar faces.  Even groups of clergy tend to stick together.  This is very human, natural, understandable.  But I believe that if we are really made in the image of God, and wanting to be like his Son Jesus, then we are called to leave the comfortable place and enter the Zone of the Unknown.  We have the greatest gift, and we want to pass it on.  This is for every one of us.

But we might quite naturally be concerned that we will make a mistake and get things wrong.  Yes we might, unless we have some help and guidance.  We are learning to listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  Did you notice that an essential part of Jesus’ baptism was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?  Did you notice our first reading from Acts 8? 

“¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.”

It seems that it was inconceivable in the early church for them to exist without a living experience of the Holy Spirit.  A little later in the service I will say to you “The Lord is here!”  and you will respond “His Spirit is with us!”  He is the one who inhabits our praise and helps us as we meet Jesus at his table.  He is also the one who is with us and in us as we go to work or go shopping, to the gym or to a club, care for the children or grandchildren, drive a car or ride a bus.  He is the one who is changing us to be like Jesus.  One of his top priorities is to change us into “walk across the room” people, who will follow Jesus and share him with our families and friends, neighbours and colleagues.  Every single one of us. 

But how?

Just remember that we are walking in the Spirit every day.  It is not that I happen to be a Christian and I happen also to play golf; I might be a follower of Jesus who plays golf with my friends.  It is not that I am a Christian and I happen also to shop regularly at “….” Supermarket; I am a follower of Jesus who is taking the presence of Jesus with me amongst the shoppers and staff.  Whether I am in an office or in school, at the surgery or riding a horse, wherever I am, I am walking with Jesus.  I am salt in the world, a light shining in the darkness.  Salt can be very useful in purifying and cleansing, but not if we keep it closed up in the container.  It needs to come into contact where it is needed.

Now if you are anything like me, you will be uncomfortable at the thought of sharing Christ’s love with others, because I am such a bad advertisement for Jesus.  To use an out of date analogy, I do not always do what it says on the tin; I am concerned that my life does not adequately reflect the faith I would love to share.  The heart of the gospel is that we are not good enough.  We were never good enough, and we never will be, at least in this life.  But God has demonstrated his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 8:5)  We walk across the room, not to say how wonderful we are, or our church is, but how wonderful Jesus is.

He is wonderful because he made the same walk.  In the familiar passage from Philippians 2 we are asked to have the same attitude of mind that Christ Jesus had:

⁶Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a human being,
    he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

In other words, Jesus left his Zone of Comfort – heaven, glory, the Trinity, and came to live on earth in a way that was far from comfortable.  So this brings us to our third point: Just Walk!  He lived this out again and again as, prompted by the Holy Spirit, he had encounters with many sorts of people.  On one occasion he deliberately separated himself from his circle of friends and disciples, to spend time with a disreputable woman, who was also a Samaritan.  At first she argued and changed the subject, but I get the impression that Jesus was happy just to talk to her and see what his Father God would do.  You can read about it in John 4.  When you do, you will see that what started in an unpromising way ended with many people from her village coming to find out more about this man, who spoke to her in such a special way.

You might imagine that, years later, the Christian community in that village might have asked themselves the question, how did we become Christians?  And one of them might have responded that it all started with that man, Jesus, who took a walk from his comfort zone to meet a woman who was on the edge, to share God’s love.

I know from my own experience that this is not easy.  We live busy lives with lots going on.  But I do encourage you to take seriously the fact that we have received the greatest gift – Jesus, and we can do our part in sharing that gift with others.

As I close, I wonder if you would like to cast your mind back.  Was there a person who “walked across the room” for you, who helped you in your path to meet Jesus, to encounter God and grow in Him?  Let us give thanks for all those who have shared the love of Jesus with us, and let us also pray that we can become people who share Jesus with others.

Amen.

Epiphany, Sunday 6 January 2013, Ephesians 3:1-12, Matthew 2:1-12, Bruce

Epiphany means unveiling, revealing, letting the light and the glory shine out. 

The big debate is about when Christmas ends, and when Twelfth Night begins.  (The custom used to be to mark the beginning of a day from sundown the previous evening, and so Twelfth Night Officially began last night.)  It is part of a world of Christmas that is safe, familiar and mainly for the children.  Presents are bought and exchanged, food and drink are consumed, games are played, and we act out the Nativity, with (mostly) children playing the parts.

But now we go back to the real world.  Back to work, back to school, back to business and news as normal.

Gays can be bishops (apparently), women cannot be bishops, the killing continues in Afghanistan and Syria, there is still unrest in Egypt, there are rapes in India reportedly every 20 minutes, we have seen the shooting of children in Pakistan and in elementary schools in America, riots go on in Northern Ireland over the non-flying of a flag.

The Gospel claim is that this is precisely the world described in the Christmas story.  Jesus was born into a fractured, violent world.  Famously, some were hostile to him (like Herod), some were indifferent (like the teachers of the law), and some worshipped him (like the Magi).

The strangers who arrived from the East were Magi, the latest in a long line of holy and learned men who had been the intellectual and spiritual force in Persian Society for centuries.  The prophet Daniel had become an honorary Magus when he interpreted the dreams of rulers in Babylonian and Persian times.  They predated Zoroaster, but had become associated with the Zoroastrians, and had become a powerful force in Parthian politics, charged with choosing the next king.

The arrival of these men, however many of them there were (the earliest traditions suggest there were 12), possibly with a retinue and armed escort, would have been a shock and an alarm to Herod.  He had ruled in Palestine for 40 years, thanks to the Romans.  He ruled a frontier state that had changed hands frequently in the border wars between the Parthian and Roman empires, with Rome in charge at present.  He himself was not a Jew, but half Idumean – a race that were ancient enemies of the Jews, so there was alwaus a question mark over his kingship.  He was known as Herod the Great.  He built many notable buildings, including starting the temple of the time of Jesus, and on occasion had been wise and generous, giving gold to the people at times of famine.  He was also famously suspicious and fearful of any attempts to supplant him, and murdered many potential rivals and also family members to secure his position.   In 4 BC the Roman emperor was aging, the Parthian succession unsure, Herod himself was old and infirm and getting more paranoid – and these strangers from the East with a track-record of king-making appeared and announced that someone else – a true Jew - has been born to be the rightful king.  Herod was troubled.  As he was famous for his vindictive ways, it is no wonder that all Jerusalem was troubled with him.  It was if Spaniards had arrived at the court of Elizabeth I to announce that James would be King.  Or if Americans had arrived at the headquarters of President Bashar Assad to announce who would now be in charge of Syria.  This might even be a complicated attempt to provoke a war with Parthia.  How not to make friends and influence people.

Except that it was all a bit of a mystery.  No-one else seemed to know anything about a new born king.  The bible experts could find a reference tucked away in the prophet Micah, but it hardly seems to have stirred much interest.  The cunning king sends the Magi to narrow the search and find out precisely where the new king is to be located. 

Much debate has taken place about exactly what they saw in the sky, how literally to take the account, whether a star did actually move across the heavens.  The record though is that they were led unerringly to the spot, and they rejoiced as they went.  They found the holy family living in a house, so some time had elapsed since the birth.  It is possible that Jesus was now anything up to two years old, so we get this picture of a toddler receiving gifts.

And what are we to think about him?  In Matthew 1 we read that the angel had told Joseph that Jesus would save his people from their sins.  Now the Magi have arrived, announcing that Jesus is a king, the king of the Jews.  Herod and his advisors are in no doubt that this is a claim to be the promised Messiah.  The first recorded words of Jesus’ public ministry at “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17)

What are we to think about him?  That he is a Saviour and a King.  He is the King of the Jews.  But he is not limited just to the Jews.  The readings selected for the feast of the Epiphany remind us that the kingdom of heaven extends over all the earth.  So we have these star led chieftains at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, as part of the Christmas story, announcing that Jesus is king of the Jews but also that he is king for every gentile as well.  Matthew ends his account with Jesus commanding us “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19,20)

Epiphany means unveiling, revealing, letting the light and the glory shine out.  The Church every year celebrates the great missionary season, when we remember that we have a treasure, we have been entrusted with something precious, and that it is for sharing.  I encountered this when Jane and I attended an Anglican church to arrange for our banns to be read in January 1980, and received a call to reach out.

This world that is so far from perfect, there is so much to distress and alarm us, it seems to be so dark.  It is precisely in this world that we are called to let our light shine and to make Christ known.  The arrival of these strangers from the East to worship Christ is a call to each one of us to lift our eyes above the humdrum and the ordinary, and the negativity and low expectations that can drag us down.  We are called to share in worship of the king of the universe, and to share him with those we live amongst.

The Magi travelled over 1000 miles.  There are many ways that we can respond to the call make Christ known – to manifest or “epiphany” him.  Some travel to Uganda or China, or to Farnborough.  Where is God calling you to travel to?  Next week we start a short series called “Just Walk Across the Room”, which is designed to help each of us share our individual story of Jesus with friends and neighbours.  Most of the congregations in Camberley will be doing this over the next month, as a preparation for Camberley Connections in March, when we will welcome some students from Wycliffe Hall and work with them for a special week of faith sharing.

God’s “intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known” (Ephesians 3:17), as we work together to share our story of Christ.  Some will be hostile, some will be indifferent, but there will be some who will be profoundly grateful for the opportunity to be welcomed in to worship the King of all.

Discussion Starters

1.       Gold for a king, incense for a priest, myrrh for a sacrifice.  If you were forced to choose only one of these, to represent Jesus, which would it be and why?

2.       Which is more important, the gifts that the Magi brought, or the fact that they came at all?

3.       What do you think is “the mystery of Christ”? (Ephesians 1:4)  How might this relate to Camberley Connections?

Sermon for Sunday 30 December 2012 – Luke 2: 41-52 and Colossians 3:12-17

One of the things about Christmas and the start of a New Year as well as the rest of the year is that we cannot escape Jesus. His birth affected Caesar’s politics, (vv. 1-3), the ministry of the angels (vv. 8-15) and the activities of common men (vv. 15-20). In that day, shepherds were looked upon scornfully, misfits; but God singled them out to be the first human messengers of the Messiah’s birth. His coming touched worshippers (vv. 21-38) and even teachers (vv. 39-52).

The angels sang about Him, and He is still the theme of the greatest music. Luke wrote about Him, and He is still the subject of the greatest literature. The shepherds hastened to behold Him, and He is still at the centre of the greatest art. Teachers listened to Him and marvelled, and He is still the focal point of all truth and wisdom.

In His development as a child, ‘growing up’, Jesus was perfectly balanced: intellectually (wisdom), physically (stature), spiritually (in favour with God), and socially (in favour with man), and He is still the greatest example for childhood and youth today. He alone is worthy of our worship! 'Oh, come!' We sing. 'Let us adore Him!.'

Today, in the gospel reading we catch a glimpse of Jesus as a boy. Joseph and Mary used to go all the way to Jerusalem every year to celebrate the Passover. When Jesus was 12 it was time for him to go too, for at 12 a Jewish boy became a man. He then became ‘a son of the law’ and had to take the obligations of the law upon himself. So at 12 Jesus went up to the Passover festival for the first time.

The city would be crowded for the festival. Families and friends travelled there together, the young folk met up with friends and relatives and enjoyed being in each other’s company. After the Passover the women usually set off earlier in the day for they would travel more slowly than the men. Later on the men would set off and the two groups would not meet up until the evening. Mary and Joseph supposed that Jesus was in the other’s company. Joseph thought he was with Mary’s group and Mary thought he was with Joseph and his group.  They supposed him to be with one of the groups when in fact they had left him behind. (Jesus – home alone – news headlines). Every mile they travelled took them further away. It was not until the evening when they had searched the camp that they knew he was missing. As they had travelled a day, it took another day to return to Jerusalem. By now Joseph and Mary were distressed and anxious for the safety of Jesus. As any parent would be.

When they found him he was in the Temple. At the Passover it was custom for the Sanhedrin to meet in the Temple to discuss religious and theological matters. And there was Jesus among them. Jesus was fascinated by them and their words.  He was learning from his teachers. Hum – or were they learning from Him!? (where else would he be - than being with the person and doing the things that he loved doing/hearing/asking?)

You can feel the relief and anxiety in Mary’s voice as she says, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this?’ Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’

In his reply Jesus gently takes the title of ‘father’ from Joseph and gives it to God. As a good Jewish son, now that he has come of age, he must be about his Father’s business. Here is a pointer to who Jesus really is. Being Son of the Father does not free him from obedience to his earthly home. The references to growing in strength and in wisdom and in divine and human favour is the Greek word charis  meaning grace, which are good Jewish qualities as reflected in 1 Samuel 2:21, 26.

We too, like Jesus, can appear to get lost and there are many ways to get lost. There is a lovely story of an absent-minded professor from Edinburgh. He used to travel regularly by train and all the ticket collectors knew him. Once by the gate he was anxiously going through his pockets and after a while the ticket collector asked if he could help. ‘I have lost my ticket’, said the professor. ‘That’s all right sir, we all know you. You can get on the train.’ ‘But’, said the professor, ‘I need my ticket because I do not know where I am going.’ It is easy to get lost in this world. Do you know where you are going?

It can be easy to get side-tracked from time to time and loose our focus on God and our relationship with Him.  It is easy in the business of everyday living to put other things first instead of readying the bible or spending time in prayer, or even trying to find a solution to a problem without asking Him first. We end up getting lost in….. whatever! Which can lead to other problems.

Jesus in coming to earth as a baby and growing up like you and I learnt the law, (rules and regulations of life), obedience, to love, to work, to study scriptures. He has giving us the Rules for Holy Living, so that we don’t get lost in our relationship with him or others.  In the Colossians reading we are reminded that as chosen by God for this new life of love, we are dressed in the wardrobe God picked out for us: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. We should be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave us. And regardless of what else we put on, wear love. It’s our basic, all-purpose garment. We should never be without it. And we should let the peace of Christ keep us in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing our own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. We should give it plenty of room in our lives. We should be helping to instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing with our hearts out to God! Let every detail in our lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. (Colossians 3:12-17 from The Message).

God wants us to wear the grace-clothes, not the grave-clothes! If our focus is on things heavenly, we will obey God in things on earth, just as Jesus did and especially in our relationship God and with others.

As we stand at the edge of a new year, and within this Christmastide, perhaps we, like Jesus did, in this coming year, may lose track of ourselves from time to time, pray that we do so; so that we can be attentive to what makes us hungry for God–and in turn, what we must do about that hunger. Amen.

ST MICHAEL’S 23 DECEMBER 2012. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S WORK – NEW, STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL Hebrews 10 : 5 – 10 Luke 1 : 26 – 45

The angel said to Mary : “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you...”

Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus. But Jesus could not have been born, and there would have been no story to tell and no good news to proclaim, without the involvement of other ‘key players’ – if I may refer to them like that. First of all there was Mary, of course, and in our tradition she doesn’t always get the attention she deserves. She has her royal place in blue at the centre of the manger scene, but of course everybody looks at the baby – as always seems to be the case. Then there’s Joseph, who gets even less attention, and is generally placed a few steps behind (like Prince Philip!), looking on benignly while the shepherds and the wise men hog the front rows. And that’s a pity really because he clearly plays an absolutely key role both in the birth story and in bringing up this precious boy.

But there’s another key player who generally gets even less attention and doesn’t appear in any manger scene, but without whom there would have been no baby and no story to tell – and that’s the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who brings God to earth in human form -  a miracle that passes all human understanding.

When God acts on the human stage, it is always and only by the working of the Holy Spirit. It seems to be part of our human nature that we are always trying to do God’s work for him. We plan services and events and organise missions, and engage in evangelism, and say our prayers and read our Bibles. But unless we worship in the Spirit, the liturgy is lifeless; unless we pray in the Spirit, the deepest longings of the human heart never surface; unless the Spirit guides us as we read the scriptures or interpret the words of my lips now to the understanding of your hearts, we are engaged in worthy activities, no doubt, but human breath never quite becomes the breath of life; nor in communion does the bread and wine become for us the body and blood of Christ. And so we wait and pray and say – Come Holy Spirit and work miracles in our midst. The Holy Spirit is the Agent through whom God works on earth – and we have to wait for him to come or our human efforts are in vain.

The Jewish people had done a great deal of waiting. They had suffered oppression after oppression, and every time they had tried to gain their freedom by their own hands and in their own time, they had been crushed. And so those with spiritual insight had come to realise that nothing of significance happens until God acts – and God acts through the Holy Spirit. It is only when God takes the initiative that the miracle happens, and everything changes.

And so the prophets had seen that nothing lasting would change until God came down among them and acted in the love and power of the Holy Spirit, and in the person of the one they came to call ‘Messiah’ – the One anointed and appointed by God – the new Moses, the new David, the new High Priest, the new and mighty Prophet, the one who would stride out and shepherd his people. And so with every new catastrophe, they flung out their arms and cried to God with their complaint ‘How Long, O Lord, how long?’

Listen to the prophet Habakkuk expressing just this sense of waiting and longing for God to act: “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, Violence! But you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” (1: 2-4).

And the Lord replied: “The revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” (2:3)

I have mentioned before that there are two words in Greek for ‘Time’. One is ‘Chronos’ – that is clock time, human time (hence all the English words associated with chronology etc). The other word is ‘Kairos’ – and that is God’s time, God’s moment, the time when the Holy Spirit acts, and God’s kingdom is revealed for all those with eyes to see. We pray for those critical moments in history when God acts through the Spirit and the world changes.

And what we celebrate at Christmas is that Kairos - that moment – that began when the angel met with a young village girl from Nazareth, and told her that the Holy Spirit was at work in her life and, through her, the world was about to change for ever. The Holy Spirit is the agent of Mission, and God’s mission to the world had begun in earnest.

Any mission to God’s people, and to the world beyond, can begin only when the Holy Spirit acts. Until then, we must wait and pray, and watch for the signs that God is on the move.

Since time immemorial this has presented us humans with two difficulties. The first is the we become impatient, and try to get on with it ourselves. How many sides of A4 have been written describing what God might do if only we wrote the right mission statement and started the action and made inspirational plans? But Psalm 127 reminds us that “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain” and “in vain you rise up early and stay up late...”. Ours is not an new problem.

The second difficulty we face is that, when the Holy Spirit does begin to work, we don’t recognise it, because the Holy Spirit specialises in doing something new, something we didn’t quite expect – even though the signs were there all along. When Herod learned from the wise men that God was in action and the great king was born, he summoned all the religious leaders and asked where this birth must have taken place. And they put their learned heads together and came up with the right answer – Bethlehem. But it seems that not one of them bothered to go there to see for themselves. And so it was left to humble shepherds to see the angels proclaiming the holy birth, and wise men from far away to notice the star and follow where it led.

When Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit at his baptism, and came announcing that the Kingdom of God was now knocking at the door, fishermen heard and responded, while the religious leaders denounced it all as dangerous nonsense.

The Holy Spirit does something new and unexpected in Mary, and in Jesus, and the religious people can’t cope with it. It doesn’t fit their traditions, their understanding of the scriptures, their expectations. And so the religious establishment writes off the work of the Holy Spirit as clearly a mistake – some sort of computer error! Sadly, religion doesn’t seem to change much. It’s just happened again at the Church of England’s General Synod. The Holy Spirit has manifestly called women to priestly ministry with all that involves in terms of responsibility, and holy people say ‘No, no – that’s impossible! It doesn’t fit our traditions, our understanding of the scriptures, our expectations! That can’t be right!’ But the Holy Spirit blows a fresh wind – always the wind of change – where he will, and either we feel his holy breath and respond, or we dismiss it all as an aberration. And we hear Jesus, as in Mark 7: 7,8 (quoting Isaiah) ‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ And Jesus adds: ‘You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.’

Contrast Peter, described in Acts 10, when the Holy Spirit takes him to Caesarea and confronts him with the Roman centurion Cornelius, and presents him with clear evidence that the Holy Spirit has fallen on Gentiles as well as Jews. And Peter accepts the evidence of his own eyes and baptises Cornelius and his household. How far would the Christian mission have got if Peter had responded by saying ‘No, no, this is not possible – it’s against the rules and traditions?’

The Holy Spirit blows where he wills, Jesus tells us (John 3: 8). He blew the breath of life upon Mary, and – probably not being hampered by too much religion – she listened and accepted the angel’s message, and went on to celebrate in words that have rung round the world for 2000 years -  that God has honoured the humble and those who are open to his word, and brought down the proud, the hypocritical, and the self-important – those who think beyond any doubt that they are certainly right.

One of our Christmas newsletters ends with words taken from a certain Professor M’Pherson: I paraphrase slightly...‘The Christian doctrine of the birth of Jesus and the gospel story, argue for an intervention by God, rather than an emergence from the human imagination. It is difficult to believe that humans, on their own, would invent a crucified corpse as a role-model. The gospel story  - part history, part mystery, is too strange and beautiful.’

The story of the annunciation could hardly be a better illustration of that description of the work of the Holy Spirit – so unexpected, so new, so strange, so beautiful.

What does that suggest for us as individual Christians and as St Michael’s this Christmas and in the year to come? I believe it suggests a waiting on God for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Not too many human plans, but a great deal of quiet prayer and an expectation of the unexpected. An openness to the Spirit, who – in your life and in mine, and in our fellowship together – will do something unexpected – new, strange and – in his own special way – beautiful. Here’s to a truly Spirit filled Christmas and New Year!

Sermon for the 16 December 2012 - What Should We Do? – Luke 3: 7-18

John the Baptist is a commanding figure who appears twice during every Advent season. On the second and third Sunday of Advent, John appears, dressed as a prophet in his strange outfit of camel hair and leather belt. His speaking style is gruff and blunt, occasionally even insulting.

He issues a call for baptism, repentance, insisting that his fellow Jews start over again and receive the baptism of water normally required only of converts. The crowds come out to be baptised, they are eager for a fresh start, and what does John call them? A brood of viper's - a bunch of baby snakes! That’ll win a few hearts!

But John had a point, though, it’s simply this. They must not rely on what their faithful ancestors did. They must not rely on his baptism of them in the river. If they are repentant, if they have undergone a change of mind, a change in how they live, then that must appear obvious in their behaviour. Just as the owner of an orchard expects the trees to bear fruit, so they also are expected to produce fruit, the glorious fruits of repentance.

What John says produces a response in those who hear him. They ask the obvious question, "What then should we do?" Three groups of people ask this question, and each group gets its answer.

Let's look first at those most deserving of suspicion: the tax collectors. Let’s keep in mind that tax collectors in John's time and place not only represent an imperial occupying power, but are notorious for keeping the difference between what they can extract from the population and what Rome requires of them. Tax collecting is a lucrative racket for those with little or no conscience.

But these tax collectors have undergone a change. "What should we do?" they ask John the Baptist. He tells them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you."

Next some soldiers approach him. These soldiers are Jewish men in the service of the local ruler who governs at the pleasure of imperial Rome. They are in the unenviable position of enforcing the will of an occupying power in their own homeland. Local patriots despise them as traitors.  They ask the same question as the tax collectors, "What shall we do?"

Jesus tells them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."

But the bulk of the thousands of people who are cut to heart by John's call for works of repentance are neither tax collectors nor soldiers; they are not public figures but private individuals. Like you and I. They also ask about the fruit they must produce. "What are we to do?"  John responds, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise."

John the Baptist tells these tax collectors, soldiers, and private citizens that the glorious fruits of repentance include much that is ordinary. They are to cease from extortion, bullying, and grumbling about money. They are to share with the destitute their surplus clothing and food. John does not ask for anything explicitly religious such as fasting or temple sacrifices. He does not demand the extraordinary, such as his own relocation to the wilderness. What he tells these private citizens, soldiers, and tax collectors is that opportunities to bear fruit appear right in front of them every day. He does not lay down an exhaustive program, a complete way to live, for those who have undergone a baptism of repentance. He simply points out the first step they can take in a new direction. By their repentant behaviour - by what they abstain from doing and what they choose to do - they will leave themselves open to wherever God directs them next.

John presumes that those listening to him will keep asking this question as their situations change: "What should we do?" Later the answers they hear may not come from the lips of a prophet, but from their own struggling hearts.

If those newly baptised in the Jordan have the opportunity and obligation to bear fruits of repentance, certainly those who have received the far greater baptism bestowed on them by Jesus with the Spirit and fire, are expected to bear such fruit as well. The opportunity and obligation to do so will appear in the place John indicated: right in front of them and us. The here and now.

In New Testament Greek, the word for repentance is metanoia, which means literally a change of mind that determines how we live. What opportunities for metanoia appear right in front of us now? What do those opportunities ask of us? To raise the question again, this time about ourselves, "What should we do?"

We could look at our lives. Recognise the places where it is broken. With whom do we need to reconcile before the feast of Christmas comes?

We could look at how we use power (not the electric stuff). Do we use it justly, or are we part of the problem?
We could look at what you have, in our wardrobes, our fridge/freezer, our bank accounts. If we own two coats, if we possess food in abundance, is it time for us to share?

Today's gospel identifies John's gruff and blunt demands as good news. These demands are targeted at us too. When we hear them in faith, we also recognise them as good news. They speak of the fruit we can produce. And when our faith produces fruit, then the world becomes different and so do we.

This in itself is good news. So too is other people's realisation that Jesus remains active in the world, a realisation that comes to them, that consoles and challenges them, because they see it in our lives.

Let us pray.

Holy Spirit, you trouble our hearts with the question, "What should we do?"
Help us recognise how answers to that question are near at hand, right in front of our faces.
Help us to act on our faith by daily choices we make for reconciliation, for justice, for sharing, for joy. May we never cease to ask, "What should we do?" and may we never stop trusting that you will give us an answer. Amen.

 

Sunday 9 December 2012, Advent 2, Philippians 1:3-11, Luke 3:1-6, Bruce

God is at work in the most surprising places.  Luke carefully tells us all the important people who are in charge; he names the emperor Tiberius, the governor Pilate, the tetrarchs Herod and Philip and Lysanius, and the high-priests Annas and Caiaphas.  But where is God on the move?  Today he might have said that it was when Elizabeth was queen, and David Cameron was PM, and Boris Johnson was mayor of London, David Hodge was leader of Surrey County Council, and Bruce Mansell was mayor of Surrey Heath, that the word of the Lord came to someone you never heard of, who lives in a shelter in the woods behind Tomlinscote.  And he starts to quote Chaucer or Shakespeare with reference to today.

As we start a year with Luke, we notice his attention to historical detail, and his concern that all are included in the good news.  “And all people will see God’s salvation.”  He is not quoting merely a poet or playwright from the past, but the scriptures that would be read and studied every day, and he is applying them to everyday life, even in a backwater like the wilderness of Judea.  The coming of Jesus is significant for every single human being, and every effort must be made to share his love and make him known.  If you are expecting an important guest, you make every effort to get things nice and in order for them.  How much more should the coming of a king mean the complete transformation of the roadway to ease their passage?  Many of us have perhaps witnessed the preparations that are made when a VIP comes to town.  In the same way John quotes the words of Isaiah that valleys must be filled in and hills levelled off to make it easier for the monarch to pass.  There is a rumour that the hill outside St Michael’s was lowered because Queen Victoria did not like it.

John is of course talking about each of individual lives.  He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  The path that must be smoothed is the way for Jesus to come into our hearts.  The obstacles to be removed are everything that prevents us from responding to and surrendering to his love.  Advent is a season for reflection, a mini Lent, when we prepare our hearts to meet the king.

It is meeting the king that is uppermost in Paul’s mind as he begins his letter to the Philippians.   He is writing from jail.  The letter is sometimes called the epistle of joy, because Paul so often mentions being joyful or giving thanks, but it is also a letter that reveals him to be aged, frail, and enduring hardship.  He seems to feel that his time on this earth is drawing to a close, and so he is frank and direct in all that he says.

Everything he writes is in the context that the day of the Lord is drawing near.  God has begun a good work in us, he says, and he will continue it until he completes it when the day of Christ arrives.  In other words, we have this Advent hope that there is a new world coming, a new heaven and a new earth.  At the moment we are living in the time between the first coming of Jesus and his second.  His life for us and his death for us on the cross has broken the power of sin and given us forgiveness and new life, but we do not yet see the fulfilment.  We are living as citizens of heaven (3:20) now, today, even when we can be suffering and in chains (1:14).  We are part of a church and a world where people can seem to be motivated by selfish ambition (1:17), vain conceit (2:3), whose god is their stomach (3:19), who can fall out like Eudodia and Syntyche (4:2).  Paul is in prison in Rome, possibly on trial for his life, but he is thinking of his friends in Philippi.  He talks of the deep affection that he feels for them – literally a feeling in his bowels.  He prays for them that they would be one in love for each other, living lives worthy of the gospel of Christ, standing firm in one spirit, striving together as one for the faith (1:27).

This Advent, as we hurry on our preparations for Christmas, motivated by a desire to make it a wonderful celebration for family and friends, so may we also deliberately make our preparations for the future.  We want to be ready, blameless, on the day that we meet Jesus.  The place and time of preparation is here and now.

Today, set aside some time for silence, reflection and prayer.

Today, invite Jesus afresh into your life, open all the doors to every part of your heart.

Today, be on the watch for people you can bring a blessing to, by a word or gesture or kindness shown.

May God give to each of us a heart where mountains are brought low, valleys are filled, where our love may abound in knowledge and depth of insight, and where the king can come in and continue his work to change us to be like him.