A lamp shining in the darkness

Sunday 23^rd February – next before Lent.

Exodus 24: 12-18. The theological function of this passage which transcends the historical and contextual problems, is to emphasis the importance and divine origin of the law. The gravity of the situation is emphasised by the use of the familiar portentous time frame “forty days and forty nights”. In Semitic cultures, high places were synonymous with Holy places and the presence of God often represented by a cloud.

2 Peter 1: 16-22. Peter assures his readers that he was an eyewitness to the events chronicled in the gospel reading, so he speaks (writes) with authority. He witnessed the transfiguration and heard the voice of God confirm that Jesus was his beloved son.

Matthew 17: 1-9. The transfiguration of Jesus pulls out all the stops to amplify the divine nature of this event. It happens on a mountain, God speaks from a cloud, the words of God are the same as heard at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, and crucially Moses, representing the law, and Elijah representing the prophets are presented as subservient to Jesus in the economy of salvation.

One of the most pivotal and revelatory episodes in Jesus’ ministry that should I think sit more properly in the season of Epiphany. We are prepared for it by the choice of Old Testament story of Moses receiving the ten commandments on Mount Sinai in Exodus. However pivotal that event was in Jewish history, and no matter how important the prophets were in trying to convince people to return to the law, both Moses and Elijah representing all the law and the prophets, are here both shown as subordinate to Jesus, as the supreme revelation of God’s will and purposes.

Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of both the law and prophesy. Moses and Elijah were present when out of the cloud, the voice of God proclaims

“This is my son, the beloved, with him I am well pleased”

Exactly the same words that accompanied the Baptism of Jesus, the event that propelled him into ministry.

Jesus shone with the uncreated light of God within him, and Jesus tells Peter, James and John not to tell anyone about the incident until after he had been raised on Easter Sunday.

All of this you could say was very poignant, very spiritual but a very cleverly constructed story to try and convince people that Jesus was who Christians claimed him to be, and Peter is well aware of that which is why he asserts with all the power that he can muster in his letter the following,

“We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty”

He then describes what he saw with his own eyes.

Thus, Peter is presented as an authentic apostle carrying authority, unlike the false prophets that were plaguing the early church.

The rest of Peter’s letter deals with the deceptions and false teachings of these false prophets, and Peter uses the fact that he is a chosen eyewitness to the truth as a badge of authority and authenticity.

In short, listen to me, not them, because I am a chosen ambassador for the truth of the gospel.

Peter presents this supernatural episode as “a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (v19)   

So, a guarantor, a promise that the glory of Jesus will again be seen when he returns, in whatever form that promise takes.

We are all accustomed nowadays to abundant light at any time at a flick of a switch but to a pre-electric society this promise meant a lot more.

To wait through the night for the coming of the morning star is one thing but to wait with the comfort of a lamp, a reminder of the promised light to come, and a real help in the darkness, is another thing altogether.

The transfiguration then is a source of Christian confidence; The glory of Jesus witnessed in the transfiguration is a guarantee of the glory due to all creation in the end.

Through confidence in what occurred on that holy mountain, Christians live hopefully in the present, by the lamp of the transfiguration.

All things will be bathed in divine light and as Julian of Norwich wrote in the middle ages,

“All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well”

And it was very good!

Sunday 16^th February – 2 before Lent

Genesis 1:1 – 2:3. A much longer reading than is usual presents an imaginative presentation of the origins of the whole creation. Most of the rest of the Hebrew scriptures is the story of one particular part of humanity – the people of Israel so it is instructive to take on board that God’s dominion and his concern is universal so the history of God’s relationship with the Jews is to be seen in that context. We are all in this together – “we” being every little bit of the universe.

Romans 8:18-25. Paul’s vision here challenges any version of the gospel that restricts salvation to human beings. All creation is to be redeemed which must surely challenge us to formulate some kind of environmental ethic. Matter “matters”. Because Paul and others contrast the body (flesh) and the Spirit, a very negative view of the body has permeated some Christian circles for ever. But Paul should be properly be understood as contrasting a life under the power of sin with a life empowered by the Spirit of God. The fact that Paul believes in the resurrection of the body should also lead us to not denigrate the human body which will also be redeemed.

Matthew 6: 25 – 34. The word translated as “worry about” carries the nuance of “make effort”, so the passage is less about what one should worry about with its overtones of neuroticism, but where one should place ones effort or drive. Strive not for worldly things but for the Kingdom of God. We may think this an unfashionable message in a time of conspicuous consumption but think how much more unfashionable it must have sounded in a largely subsistence culture of rural Palestine.

The book of Genesis imaginatively narrates the origins of everything in the whole universe and as such is majestic in its import and scope.

Genesis is not a scientific textbook, but makes the extraordinary claim that everything that exists, exists because of the will of a creator God.

That is ground zero for Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

The pinnacle of creation is humankind, which God created in His own image.

The words in verse 27 say “In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them”

The fulness of God is found in the complementary gifts of men and women acting in tandem with each other.

Genesis notes that this difference between humanity and the rest of creation is this heightened sense of being created in the image of God which can be interpreted in many ways.

We have the ability the think, feel, create, love, take responsibility, make moral judgements, on a smaller scale, but just as God does – made in the image of God.

Because of those innate qualities, that sets us slightly apart from creation we are to be stewards of the earth and have a unique place in the universe.

God has entrusted the earth to our care, to use but not abuse what has been given into our care.

The creativity of humanity is extraordinary. We can harness the power of the atom to make electricity, We build rockets that can reach the moon and satellites that travel out of our solar system, we can harness the power of water, wind and the sun. We create film, art, music, we communicate across thousands of miles through a small device that fits in our pockets. We farm the land and raise livestock to feed ourselves which reminds us that while we are special in many ways we are still of the created order that has much more elemental needs.

To eat, to drink, to procreate, to clothe ourselves.

No matter how much we create or seek out new worlds, or how complex our computerisation becomes, those basic needs do not change.

Jesus says that of course God knows you need those basics of existence, but you have an even greater need, because we are made in the image of God.

We have need of love and to come into good healthy relationship with each other, and with the rest of creation and also with God our creator.

The healthy and sound relationship we need with each other and with creation itself rests on coming into a sound and healthy loving relationship with God Himself.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and everything else will be given to you as well” means to me that when we know our place in the created order as a child of God, loved by God, and redeemed by God, everything will start to fall into place, environmentally and socially.

Jesus points out that the gentiles – meaning those that don’t know or recognise the creator God of Genesis – just strive after the basics of life because they don’t yet know the higher truth that we were made to live in relationship with the God of all things. We are more than just flesh and blood and instinct.

Our needs are greater. We need God in our life.

The law of Love

Sunday 9th February – 3^rd before Lent

Isaiah 58: 1-9. The people wonder why God does not answer them in their distress. God tells Isaiah to tell the people exactly why this is so with a voice like a trumpet (verse 1). Isaiah’s voice needs to be loud and clear to pierce their armour-plated complacency surrounding their religious devotion. Their religion is debased because it is self-serving and hypocritical and used to cloak their failure to live as God would have them live. A life filled with Justice and charity is what God requires as well as worthy religious devotion.

1 Corinthians 2: 1-12. This is not a piece of writing that is against human intellect and reasoning as such but only as it sets itself up in opposition to God’s wisdom as revealed in Christ crucified. Paul infers that conversion is a gift of God rather than a product of clever human persuasion or rhetoric. That doesn’t stop us being involved intellectually of course – Paul is actually the greatest example of this – but faith is a gift of God and so just as other gifts of the Spirit, if we want at have or bestow faith we should pray for it.

Matthew 5: 13-20. Was Jesus a legalist? He warns people that if ignore the law or teach others to do likewise are doomed. This has cause philosophical problems from the beginning. Jesus says he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. In the sermon on the mount he explains that the law of love is much more rigorous than the written law (Do not murder becomes do not even get angry for example) and our righteousness must exceed the scribes and Pharisees. The Spirit of the law, the law of love, is the highest form of service to God and its demands are limitless and referring back to the Isaiah reading today is what God always expected from us. We find these demands quite impossible of course which is why we need a saviour like Jesus to save us from our sins.

Jesus says “You must obey the law”

That is problematic for many Christians who understand Jesus as having come to abolish the law.

But what Jesus means by the law is that the laws, like the ten commandments, or even the myriad little laws in the Old Testament, are expressions of God’s law which are centred in Love and all written laws are subservient to the law of Love. 

On one level Jesus makes it very easy for us because all the essential laws in the Old Testament have been gathered into two laws which are entirely complimentary.

“Love God and Love thy neighbour as yourself”

Deceptively simple as I said. How that law of love works out in daily living is so rigorous it makes the eyes water.

The headline law is distilled to its very root, its very essence, so for example,

Do not murder, becomes do not even get angry because anger is the root of murder.

Do not commit adultery, becomes don’t even look at another woman with any kind of lust in your heart.

Using these two headline examples, Jesus demonstrates that rather than coming to abolish the law, he has actually come to fulfil it, which makes it much stricter in reality.

What we are aiming for, humanly speaking is beyond us no matter how hard we try. Jesus says we must demonstrate a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the pharisees, who were the most scrupulous law keepers of all.

For example Jesus also bids us not to retaliate when slapped, and to love our enemies. This is hard stuff.

We can pray for and aspire to these things obviously, but humanly speaking they lie mostly beyond us.

It is a classic Christian understanding that those who think they have no sin, meaning that they keep all the law all the time, deceive themselves. We all need a saviour because keeping the law of love in every respect all the time is beyond us and in breaking one part of the law we break all of it.

Acknowledging our need of a saviour implies a lot of self-knowledge and self-understanding. It requires humility and knowing that we cannot earn our own salvation. We are dependent on God to save us and in his love for us he sent us a saviour.

We want to please God and aspire to the law of love, and may make excellent progress towards doing that, but the knowledge that we all fall down in some respect keeps us from a too tight judgementalism and leads us to a proper personal humility towards God.

A church’s self-understanding should be as a community of forgiven sinners. That is what we are and the measure of how much we realise that we are forgiven will naturally dictate how forgiving we are of others. That beautiful line in the Lord’s prayer “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” makes plain the connection between the two.

Knowing our status as a forgiven sinner leads to appreciate with deep joy the enormity of the sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross. Through his suffering we are healed.

We didn’t deserve to be saved. We are saved through the wonderful gift of the Grace of God.

So, the next time you read the sermon on the mount, know what the law of love requires of us all. Aspire to it and pray for the gift of God’s spirit to try and attain it. But also be mindful that our innate nature pre-disposes us to fail to fully attain it.

But we can rejoice that when we do fail, Jesus has won forgiveness of our sins, and our salvation is secure.

The standard of behaviour required by the law of love has only ever been fulfilled by one man – the only man worthy enough to represent and intercede for us before God. Jesus was that man. Human like us and yet without sin.

Jesus was God’s son and died to set us free to live a life free from fear if we put our faith in Him.  

   

Candlemas

Next Sunday 2^nd February – Candlemas

The presentation of Christ in the Temple, also known as Candlemas, marks the end of the Christmas/Epiphany season. Afterwards we mark Sundays as “Before Lent”. Ash Wednesday is on 26^th February.

Malachi 3: 1-5. Malachi means “messenger” or “angel” in Hebrew and a messenger is to be sent to Israel to purify society. It starts in the Temple (which should know better) and then spreads to the social sphere. A worthy cult and a just society go together. It is arguable that although this reading is selected to accompany Christ’s presentation in the Temple, the incident which mirrors this prophecy best in Christ’s ministry is Christ clearing the Temple of the money changers.

Hebrews 2: 14-18. An unequivocal statement that Jesus was human in every way. This is important when assessing the chances of our own resurrection from the dead. He shares our humanity so we can share in his resurrection. He was tested so he can intercede for us, who are being tested

Luke 2: 22-40. Actually, the presentation of the first-born son entailed no visit to the Temple. What Luke is really describing is the purification of Mary. Luke wants to present Jesus as being very much a full part of Jewish ritual and tradition. Jesus is presented as the focus of faith in whom one finds salvation.  

Whatever inaccuracies about Jewish rituals are contained in Luke’s account of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple – what he describes appears actually to be the purification of Mary – one thing is in no doubt.

Luke presents Jesus as the sole object of faith and hope, in whom one finds salvation.

Addressing God, holding Jesus in his arms he proclaims;

Jesus is our salvation, a light for the whole world, who will also bring glory to Israel.

Jesus is very much a fully human, Jewish child and it is his very humanness that concentrates the mind of the author of the letter to the Hebrews.

So why is it so important to stress the humanity of Jesus and why ever since has it been important to stress the full humanity of Jesus alongside his divinity?

In expressing the will of God and expressing God’s character Jesus was fully divine but this divinity was expressed in a human mind and body exactly like yours and mine.

This means frankly that he can completely identify with every human soul in our trials temptations and sorrows making him perfect in representing us in front of his Father.

Whatever you are suffering, Jesus suffered too and can identify with you as a friend and brother. He knows what it’s like to live a life.

His humanity, his flesh and blood becomes even more important when we consider his resurrection.

The resurrection is a mystery but the reason we say we believe in the resurrection of the body is that Jesus appeared bodily to the disciples after he had been crucified. Jesus had a flesh and blood body and appeared as a resurrected body.

Therefore, we believe that our flesh and blood bodies can be resurrected bodies also.

Jesus, because he was human, is our model for what lies in store for us.

It is too easy to say that Jesus was resurrected because he was different – he was special – but I can’t believe that could happen to me! Paul encountered people saying just that in is time. Listen to Paul speaking to the Corinthians;

1 Corinthians 15:12-19 

¹² Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; ¹⁴ and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁷ If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have died^[a] in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

As I have said, Jesus is our model here for what will happen to us also.

In his resurrection Jesus retained his personality. He remained who he was. This is the basis for the Christian hope that we retain our sense of personhood after death.

Hindu’s believe just by way of contrast that when you die, your personality dies with you and you dissolve into the one great soul – Brahma.

The Christian hope based on the resurrection stories is that we remain essentially differentiated and will therefore be able to recognise and communicate with others as separate beings just as Jesus did.

This is why it is so important to retain that sense of the human Jesus alongside any sense of his divinity.

Yes, Jesus is Lord and King and Son of God, but he is also our friend and brother who because he was fully human could be our saviour and model of our future.

Amen.