Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand

Sunday 26^th January – Epiphany 3

Isaiah 9: 1-4. The gloom and anguish in verse 1 refers to the nation of Israel (as distinct from Judah) that had been conquered by the Assyrians circa 724BC and prophesies hope – a great light – that will dawn for such oppressed people. The “day of Midian” (verse 4) refers to the battle Gideon fought against a mighty army of the Midianites with just 300 men. God on their side enabled the tiny army to overcome their enemies

1 Corinthians 1: 10-18. People in the church of Corinth have, it has been reported, been driven into factionalism and people are identifying with particular leaders rather that gathering around Christ himself. This temptation to ally oneself with a particular leader, faction or cause that is penultimate to the gospel itself has been ever present from earliest times it seems and is a continual temptation for us all today. Do we align ourselves with evangelicals or traditionalists, feminists or social activists to mention particular examples. Both at congregational and denominational level we need to remember that we gather around Christ first and foremost.

Matthew 4: 12-23. Matthew takes the “great light” from Isaiah and applies it directly to be a prophesy about Jesus fulfilling the prophesy by moving to Capernaum from Nazareth. The content of his preaching is “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near”. Jesus calls Peter and Andrew closely followed by James and John and what is notable is that they did not choose Jesus but Jesus chooses them. The initiative is always taken by God.

The preaching of Jesus was very simple. He taught in parables largely and healed people which were together great flashing neon signposts of the presence of God in Christ, but his preaching was succinct.

It was “repent for the kingdom of heaven is near”. He expanded it on occasion for example in the sermon on the mount but that and every other sermon he may have preached is encapsulated in that one phrase.

“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near”

So it is incumbent on us to investigate that word – that command – repent to understand what Jesus requires of us.

We find out that the word translated into English as Repent is a Greek word called “Metanoia” which theologically a transformative change of heart, a spiritual conversion which is not superficial but reaches into every fibre of your being.

Repentance is more associated in the minds of English-speaking people with being sorry and regretful for the past. Sure, that is an element of that in the process but it is not the clarion call of either John the Baptist or Jesus wanted to inspire people with, to repent – not a looking back, but a looking forward with a transformation of mind and body, and character in our thoughts and our deeds.

The word also indicates the way one’s character is changed, and that is by the Grace of God.

This removes any sense of personal achievement, that someone may have achieved any transformation by their own effort and hard work.

Our role in this transformation process is to be open to the working of God within us to affect the changes He longs to see.

So the two most pivotal words in Christianity – Grace and repentance – rely on each other.

I have always thought about it like this;

We each of us have the surface of ourselves, the outer layer of culture education, upbringing and we have that deeper part of ourselves, our instincts, our sub-conscious, that part of us we keep hidden often even from ourselves.

God wants all of us, every bit of us to be converted.

I have often used the analogy that spiritual conversion is when the beliefs in your head make that short but hazardous journey from your head down to your heart – from your mind to your soul.

But what can any of us do to render ourselves more open to God’s Spirit?

Setting time apart to be consciously in God’s presence – putting yourself in God’s way.

Using stillness in our personal prayers – time and space for God to speak to us in and through our lives.

Contemplate scriptural verses that leap out at us or mean something special to us.

Receiving communion in such a contemplative way speaks so directly to the human soul because we are physically taking bread and wine into ourselves in order to commune with God.

Pray for God to fill you with his spirit

In such a way, you are offering yourself as an empty vessel for God to pour in his Spirit.

I have always thought it tragic that the church has spent centuries arguing over whether the bread and wine in the Eucharist changes when all along what God wants is not for bread and wine to change it is us that He wants to change.

“Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”

  

Unity in diversity

Isaiah 49: 1-7. In this, the second of the four “servant songs” the identity of the servant pirouettes between an individual and the whole of the nation of Israel. After all, it could be said that “Israel” was also called into being by God before it was born. The identity of the servant is applied to Jesus by Christians but in the same way the church could also have this applied to it as the embodiment of Christ in the world.

1 Corinthians 1: 1-9. The opening of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church reveals his theology of “calling”. He was called, as the church in Corinth was called to be Saints and in turn they call on the name of Jesus. The insistence of our common calling, albeit to different tasks as he explains in his “body of Christ” image, means that the radical claims of the Bible intrude into every Christian life, a claim that requires full participation.

John 1: 29-42. The first part of John’s prologue (John 1:1-18) is a meditation on Jesus in the light of eternity, and there on it becomes a historical narrative. Verse 29 starts “the next day” (unfortunately not translated in our official lectionaries) and involves a series of Christological confessions. “Lamb of God” (v29,36), Messiah (v41), “Son of God” and “King of Israel” (a few verses on in v49). In our lectionary extract note the different account of the calling of Andrew and Peter, no longer encountered while fishing but as active disciples of John the Baptist.

I have a calling!

But then, so do you. More specifically we are all, just by being here responding to God’s call to us.

God’s call is to all creation and every person in this world. As we heard St. Peter say in last week’s gospel “I understand now that God shows no partiality”

Our New testament reading is St. Paul’s opening greetings to the church in Corinth and it is tempting to overlook these opening sentences and get on to the really exciting meat later in the letter but his opening verses reveals some of his most fundamental convictions and one of them is “calling”.

He starts by identifying himself as being called by the will of God, and his letter is to all those called to be Saints, who in turn “call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” which is what we are all doing here this morning.

We are all responding to God’s call to come into a closer relationship with Him, a call articulated through Jesus Christ.

As most of you will be aware, Paul goes on to talk about those who respond to God’s call  as being called into a body with many different strengths and diverse gifts and contributions and God desires all of those different contributions to make up what Paul calls the body of Christ.

That sense of unity in diversity I think is a very helpful metaphor when thinking about the church Partnership and this joint service introducing the week of prayer for Christian unity.

Our starting point is that we are all responding to God’s call but we do so in ways that suit our personalities, our personal histories and our practical needs primarily.

Differences in theological interpretation are important for some but for most people they are secondary considerations.

So the consensus we arrived at is that whenever we have a joint service in a particular church, the service reflects the tradition of the host church rather than trying to cater to everyone else’s tradition.

But no matter how unfamiliar our style of worship may be, you can be sure of one thing – that the Holy Spirit is here, working amongst all of us who are called by God to be a part of his kingdom, We are different branches of the same tree.

Jesus told a parable about that - about different people having a common root.

For different people also read different church traditions. We are all grafted in to the stem that is Jesus.

“I am the true vine” said Jesus and our different churches are the different branches and we all draw from the same life-giving Spirit.

I have always kept a completely open table for the simple reason that I have always thought that anyone coming to the altar rail with outstretched hands has just as much right to receive Jesus as I have to offer Him.

After all they are responding to God’s call and I am not the bouncer standing guard at the pearly gates of heaven.

He is after all the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The whole world, not one tiny sub-section of it.

In our joint worship this morning, regardless of denomination, we are called together, called to confess our sins together, called to receive absolution together, called to share peace with each other and called to commune with God and each other together and get sent out into the world with God’s blessing together.

Thanks be to God, Amen.

The Baptism of Christ

Sunday 12^th January – The Baptism of Christ

The Epiphany theme continues with the main Epiphany story for the Eastern church – the baptism of Christ. 

Isaiah 42: 1-9. The servant about whom Isaiah writes is not for Israel alone but for all the “nations” (verse 1). He will work quietly and gently and is the sign of the covenant (verse 6) God has with all humanity to open our eyes to the truth and release us from spiritual and emotional prison.  

Acts 10: 34-43. The Christian gospel starts to break down the walls of division and Peter is finally convinced of the universal application of the good news of Jesus. What follows is a potted history of the life and works of Jesus which Peter locates as beginning with his Baptism and being anointed by God (anointed; is Messiah in Hebrew – Christ in Greek).

Matthew 3: 13-17. This well-known story about the start of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew differs in one crucial way from the original story in Mark’s gospel. In Mark’s gospel the voice from heaven is heard as an internal affirmation by Jesus. “You are my beloved Son”. In Matthew’s gospel this is changed into a public announcement “This is my beloved Son”. The truth is that one has to be convinced of one’s own status and mission before that fact can be manifested in one’s life as a wider announcement to the world.  

The public ministry of Jesus starts here – his baptism in the Jordan.

It has been estimated by scholars that Jesus was about thirty when he was baptised by John and he was crucified when he was 33 so the entire recorded earthly ministry only lasted three years and it all started with him going to John to be baptised.

What happened there propelled him and sustained him on what must be the most remembered, talked about, discussed and celebrated three years of any human life ever.

So what happened there? Well let’s start with the very meaning of the word baptism. It literally means immersion, not just literally, as in immersion in water, but metaphorically as well. For at his baptism Jesus was immersed in God’s animating Spirit – that was the force that ignited his ministry – the Spirit of God himself.

Explaining to people what happened in such a mysterious encounter with God is almost impossible. Anyone who has ever had a religious or spiritual moment and tried to explain it to others know how difficult it is. The Baptism of Christ has two components –  what happened to Jesus in his heart soul and mind (the inward effect) and how this was manifested, made real in his life, words and works (the outward effect).

Trying to describe such an encounter led to Matthew and Luke describing those two different consequences in their gospels. Mark telling us what Jesus “heard” and experienced in his heart and soul and in Matthew’s gospel He tells us it was an event that was obvious and discernible by others and the voice of God was “heard” making an announcement.

Together they try and encapsulate the whole of Jesus’ baptism, but the truth is, as I’ve already said, words fall far short when we try and describe spiritual moments. That is true for us and certainly true for Jesus.

The essence of what He heard God say to Him is that he is God’s son. That God is his Father, and ours. Don’t forget he taught his disciples to pray “Our Father”.

To call someone the Son of God means that he bears all the nature and characteristics of God. It means, that Jesus said and acted just as God would have said and acted within the constraints of a fully human life. As Paul says, “the image of the invisible God”. As John says “the word made flesh”.

Theologically the church asserts that Jesus was “begotten not made” but his earthly life needed the propellent of God’s Spirit to launch and sustain his life and witness.

“You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased” is the affirmation, the blessing, that He heard and empowered him.

What is absolutely extraordinary, is that this blessing is not reserved for Jesus alone.

When any of us accept that Jesus is the Son of God we too have the right to call ourselves children of God and accept God as our Spiritual Father.

This is a life enhancing, life changing thing when we hear those words spoken to our heart.

Close your eyes and hear God speaking to you.

“You are my child, the beloved. With you I am well pleased”

This is the blessing that all people need to hear. To know they are loved and cared for by God. That our lives are worth something.

Hear those words and keep them close to you as you commune with God here this morning.

As we immerse ourselves in God, are baptised in his Spirit, what will we be capable of, when we are anointed with the propellent of God’s Spirit in our lives.

God, like any good parent wants you to fulfil your potential and become the person He always planned for you to be.   

Following the star.

Sunday 6^th January – the Epiphany

Isaiah 60: 1-6. This famous piece announces the light that has been revealed to the world, and how our response is to “thrill and rejoice” because of the abundance of the gift that has been given. This future action of God is presented as a “prophetic perfect” as if it had already happened. We are to rise and shine with the reflected glory of the presence of Emmanuel.

Ephesians 3: 1-12. Paul tells us that the revelation of the mystery made manifest in Jesus Christ was long hidden but now, by the gift of Grace, has been made known to him and the apostles to inform the church of the abundance of the boundless riches in Christ. This mystery was in accordance with the eternal purposes of God, that through Jesus we have access to God.

Matthew 2: 1-12. The Magi were a class of Zoroastrian priests from Persia. They were obviously gentiles, so the Book of common prayer explained Epiphany as the “manifestation of Christ to the gentiles.” In later tradition they became kings with names although interestingly Matthew’s gospel never says there were just three of them – only that there were three gifts.  In the Zoroastrian religion they expected a final saviour of the world to be born to a virgin impregnated by the god Zoroaster.

Who is Jesus and why is he any different to any other person ever born?

Epiphany is my favourite time of the liturgical year because the answer to those central questions is the subject matter.

To Paul he is the “image of the invisible God”( Colossians 1: 15). To John, he is “the word made flesh”.

How they came to those conclusions is primarily through the resurrection of Jesus for John, and for Paul, encountering the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus.

But then, in the light of the resurrection Biblical authors look back on Jesus’ life to look again at all the signs that were given that point to his true identity.

The visit of the Magi is one such story that acts as a prism refracting the light emanating from the Christ-child. You will note that the family are now living in a house as it says in verse 11, and as I said last week this incident probably took place about two years after his birth, so the wise men at the crib is something of an anachronism but the symbolism is immense.

The first notable thing is that the king of the Jews was recognised by foreigners following a different religion altogether. This says that Jesus is a gift for the whole world.

The fact that they had travelled from the East, probably present-day Iran, and that journey would have been long and arduous could be a metaphor for our own spiritual journeys to Jesus. Many of us have journeyed from no faith at all to being a committed believer, and others may have journeyed from a perfunctory faith to a more meaningful one. On their faith journey some may feel they have become side-tracked or lost in the desert and are looking for a sign or a fresh revelation

Wherever we are on the journey or how we got there, the end is recognizing  God revealed in Christ, just as the Magi did.

Of course, Matthew never says there were just three of them, only that there were three gifts, and these gifts were symbols that throw light on the true meaning of Jesus and what he represents.

Gold is a gift that denotes royalty and kingship.

This child is a king but not a king in the earthly temporal sense. His kingdom is spiritual in nature and his kingdom knows no earthly boundaries and doesn’t need any armies to defend it.

We don’t need passports or I.D papers – and the only way a fellow traveller can be recognised is when they exhibit the fruits of the Spirit, as Jesus said, the fruit that is our collective identity (Matt. 7:16). The Spirit of God knows no ethnic, religious, or cultural barriers so when one does what is required by the law of love, you are a part of the kingdom which is the message of the parable of the sheep and the goats.

In the end every knee will bow to the revelation of the true nature of God.

Frankincense tells us that as well as a king he is also our high priest. For the Hebrew people, the high priest in the temple represented the people of Israel  to God. He made sacrifices and offerings out of gratitude to the God that had given us all life. Jesus, breaking the bounds of Judaism represents all of humanity, not just the Jews before God in a very special way, which brings us to the final gift – Myrrh.

Myrrh was used in the embalming process, and probably what the women were carrying when they went to anoint the body of Jesus on that first Easter morning.

This gift indicates that the death of Jesus is going to be of huge significance. I said the High priest offered sacrifices in the Temple and the greatest sacrifice that could be offered was a blood sacrifice because blood is symbolic of life itself – we still use the phrase lifeblood. And the animal sacrificed needed to be the best they had, without blemish.

Jesus in his very person was the perfect unblemished sacrifice made on behalf of all humanity at all times and in all places. The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus was sinless in the sense that he had an unbroken perpetual relationship with God the Father, when sin is understood as a broken relationship with God.

His self-sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world and open the gates of heaven to all who would enter in.

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh symbolise the life and work of Jesus but life is so multi-faceted and complex there will always be unanswered questions which is why I like Paul’s description of Jesus as a mystery revealed. Revealed but not fully explaining everything.

God’s wisdom and thoughts are far above our thoughts. A symbol contains more meaning than can be expressed in words. That is true for all symbols whether a wedding ring or a communion wafer.

At Mirfield I was taught that there were always going to be mysteries that defy our attempts to rationalise and categorize them. Sometimes we just need the humility to sit under the mystery and wait for our own personal epiphanies on our journey to full communion with God.