The Word This Week

This is my first sermon as a priest in the Church of God.  I meant to record myself preaching this, but with a brain like a sieve sometimes you forget things… 

The Word This Week:


Philippians 2:1-13 

Let us pray,


In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Good Morning again everyone.  This morning as you know is a very special time for me – it is the first time that I am serving you as a priest in the church of God.  In a little while I will be presiding at the Eucharist, for the very first time and together we will share in the presence of Christ truly with us.  These are significant things in my journey and I am truly humbled to have been called by God to serve his people in ministry, and I truly pray that he will give me the grace to do it well.  This morning I thought I would give you a little bit of background about me – I want to share with you my testimony, my story of how I came to be standing here before you today.


My story begins just down road in Tottenham, I grew up in a fairly typical family environment in contemporary Australia.  My parents were divorced, and I was raised by my mother and step father until I went to live with my dad when I started High School. My family was, again,  typical in terms of identification with the Christian faith – on the census they would mark down that they belonged to a Christian denomination, and they wouldn’t eat meat on Good Friday – but as for attendance at church – that was restricted to weddings, baptisms and funerals.  Now I want to be clear, my family is not and has never been anti-faith, it has just been not a priority in their lives.


I moved to Queanbeyan towards the end of High School and completed my HSC at Karabar High with the support of family. While I was there I was seeking for meaning in life – I was seeking for God – but of course Christianity was rubbish, only goody goody people were into that nonsense – and they were really all hypocrites anyway – or so my limited understanding of the faith, gained largely through the media and movies, would have me believe. So naturally I sought for God in other places – eventually finding myself involved in the neo-pagan movement and a practising Wiccan – Wicca is a pagan religion involving witchcraft for those of you who have never heard of it.   I was still a Wiccan when I met my beautiful wife for the first time at University… she prayed for me, and asked others to pray for me.


It was after the end of that year at Bathurst Uni, that i gave up on Wicca – it had left me feeling spiritually empty, and I resolved to myself that I would spend the rest of my life as an agnostic. This was where I was in my spiritual journey for the next couple of years as I worked as a Grain handler at the silo in Tottenham.  Then I moved to Albury-Wodonga with two mates.  I was studying an Arts degree, but not really interested in it… I was more interested in reading novels than in the required reading for my degree. It was this that lead me to enter a Dymocks Book store in Albury one fateful day.  While in that store I had an overwhelming compulsion to buy a bible… something that I couldn’t explain, after all I wasn’t interested in Christianity… I had bought that bible and was out the door before I really knew what was happening.


Of course now I can look back on that moment and know that the Holy Spirit was at work.  At the time I was a very confused 21 year old with a book I had no idea what to do with.  I did however know that I was baptised as an infant as a Roman Catholic.  So I resolved to go and speak to the local Catholic priest – Msgr William Fulton.  Fr Fulton is the man who truly introduced me to Jesus for the first time.  He met with me regularly, he gave me material to read, and answered my ridiculous questions.  He encouraged me and nurtured me and after some months he heard my first confession and admitted me to Holy Communion.


My journey from that time until now, has not always been easy.  I have been through times of doubt, and struggle. I have had demons to fight off and vices to conquer – and I am not done yet.  But God is faithful, and he will give me the grace I need to persevere in faith.


Now you’re likely thinking, “well that’s all fine and good Daryl, but what on earth does it have to do with the readings that you are supposed to be preaching on?”  


Well there was one thing that troubled me as I was coming to faith.  Why? Why would Jesus be willing to die on the cross for us? Why would this man suffer and die for me, and for you? It was our reading from Philippians today that began to help me understand, and I hope as we look at it  it can help you too.


The first thing I want us to look at is verse 6.  talking about Jesus Paul says ‘who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited’ Do you understand the significance of that statement? Jesus is not just a nice man, who did some nice things and was killed for it.  Jesus was and is God incarnate as a human being.  He is the second person of the triune God.  God didn’t just set up some man to cop the consequence of sin that we deserve, it was God himself who  came as one of us, to take the consequence for us.  


Lets keep reading, what did God the Son have to do in order to come and save us? Verses seven and eight continue: ‘but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.’  


Lets ponder that for a moment – the creator and sustainer of the universe, God the Son through whom all things were made, the eternal everlasting Word of God humbled himself to become a human being, and to offer himself as a slave for our salvation.  This God who had spent eternity in bliss, in a state of existance that knows no pain, no suffering – a place where every tear is wiped away and where death does not exist – this God came to earth as a fragile, weak human being.  He went through life just as we do, he was required to show obedience to his parents and elders just as we are.  He underwent the same kinds of temptations we do.  This God who had never had to endure pain, humbled himself and was obedient even unto death – even the most shameful, horrible and painful death imaginable – death on a cross.


It doesn’t seem rational that a regular human would do that – let alone God incarnate. So what could have been the motivation – Why? Why would he do this, why would he give up so much for our sake? Why would the creator and sustainer of the universe lower himself to such a degree, to save one of his creations, this human race who largely ignore him, and don’t live even remotely how he created them to.


Love.  Love is the answer. Love is the driver, it is only love that can explain this.  And what a love it must be! We know that love in this world can sometimes be fleeting, it can be often based in emotion and it can be fickle.  That is not the love that God displays through Jesus.  This is a love that is all encompassing, a love that is overwhelming.  It is a love that conquers fear – can you imagine the fear that Jesus felt in the Garden of Gethsamene as he waited for them to come and arrest him? It is a love that is humble, the king of kings and Lord of Lords gave up everything he had for us. It is a love that is sacrificial – He offered himself, so that we could be saved.  When we look at it through the lens of this reading from Philippians it sheds new light on that famous line from John’s Gospel – For God so loved the World that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  


We still can’t comprehend the love that God has for us,  we can’t understand why he would love us so much, that he would do this.  But each day as we journey with Him, we should seek to honour him who gave so much for us.  We should seek to follow him as best we can, and though we will often fail we can be assured  that because of his great love – displayed through Christ – we are forgiven. We should give thanks everyday that we are loved, with an all encompassing, sacrificial love.


My brothers and sisters, you have heard my story, and you have heard how I came to begin to understand the love of God for me.  I want you to understand that this love of God is for you too.  Jesus didn’t just die for me – he died for you as well.  He rose from death and opened the door to eternal life not just for me, but for you as well.  I encourage you this week to consider the love of God, to consider what has been done for you – consider what it cost.  Then re-commit yourselves to your faith – seek to live lives that speak of the love of Christ that has set you free. Above all brothers and sisters, take comfort in the knowledge that you are loved, more than we could ever hope to understand.


The Lord be with you.

The Word This Week:

 
• Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18  

 

• 1 Corinthians 6:12-20  

 

• John 1:43-51

Let us Pray: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, AMEN.

 Good Morning again everyone!

 We live in a world where privacy is becoming increasingly less and less present in our lives.  People share all the trivia of our day to day existence on Facebook and twitter… yet there is still that part of us that we keep secret, our inmost thoughts, feelings and desires, that we don’t share with the world, that we keep hidden.  Sometimes we keep it hidden because it is embarrassing, sometimes we bury it because it is painful, but we all have those parts of our lives, those parts of ourselves that we hide away, that we don’t share.

There is one however that knows our deepest darkest secrets. There is one who knows our hopes and our dreams, our fears and our joys.  There is one who knows every good deed we have done in secret, and every wrong we have committed. 

God knows us.  You will note the theme present in our readings today, speak of God’s intimate knowledge of us.  Our psalm starts us off with the psalmist speaking of God’s intimate knowledge of our inmost being.  God knows our thoughts, our hearts, he knows every detail of us for it was he who created us, it was he who knitted us together in our mothers womb.  More important than that, the psalmist says “In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.”

God already knows us, he already knows the mistakes we will make and the sin we will commit before we are born… and yet he loves us. So much does he love us that he was willing to come to earth as one of us. Jesus was willing to become a human being, and die on the cross for us so that we could be brought back into full communion with the God who created us – this God who has known us since before time began.

And make no mistake brothers and sisters, that is what Jesus death and resurrection is about.  This God, who is the creator and sustainer of the entire universe wants to be in relationship with you and me.  So great is his love for us, despite our tendency to reject him, despite our inclination to sin. This God who formed the stars, and planets and who created life from nothing – calls us.  He calls you and me to relationship with him.

This is what St Paul is speaking of in his letter to the Corinthians when he says that we are united to the Lord and become one in spirit with Him.  God calls us to unity with Him, to be at one with him in our very souls. He calls us to join our hearts to his heart and our thoughts to his thoughts, so that just as when Nathaniel looked at Jesus and saw God revealed, we can be those who reveal God to the world.

I want you to notice something about how Nathaniel became a disciple of Jesus Christ, about how he came to recognise Jesus as the Son of God, and his Lord.  Nathaniel wasn’t directly called by Jesus, as other disciples had been, Jesus didn’t walk up and say follow me as he had other times… no, it was Philip who Jesus called like that… and then it was Philip who brought the revelation to Nathaniel.  He told Nathaniel that Jesus was the fulfilment of the Hebrew scriptures – that he was the promised Messiah… Nathaniel as you might expect living in a period of time where there had been more than a few false Messiahs running about, has a healthy dose of scepticism… can anything good come from Nazareth? he says…

Here is the clincher… are you ready? Philip doesn’t launch into a long exegesis of the Hebrew scriptures to explain how this poor son of a tradesman from the tiny village of Nazareth –  in Galilee of all places – could be the promised Messiah. He doesn’t deride Nathaniel for his scepticism… what does he do?

 … He says – Come and see.

Philip has much to teach all of us about evangelism.  It is not our role to argue people into the kingdom. It is not our role to be the moral police for society.  Our primary role is to live in unity with the God who created us, and to say to those who question why… come and see.

We are called not to do God’s work in transforming lives, but to invite people to the place where they can experience God’s love and intimate knowledge first hand. When Nathaniel came face to face with Jesus, and realised that Jesus knew him, that he knew him before he had even seen him… it was then that he came to faith – not through argument or reason, but through experiencing God first hand.

So how do we do it? How do we be people who say come and see? Well it might sound silly to our ears… but why not just start with those words… come and see… when was the last time we invited someone to come to church with us? The worst they will say is no… the best that could happen is that they could experience their own meeting with God and have their lives transformed!

We also need to live our lives as those who have been transformed, as Paul says all things are lawful for me … but not all things are beneficial.  All things are lawful in the sense that we are saved by the grace of God and not by anything we do… but there are many things which we can do which are far from good for us… and which also draw us and those around us away from God.

If we are living as disciples of Christ. If we are seeking to be beacons of Christ’s love and hope in the world then our very lives will be inviting those around us to ‘come and see’.  If we are merely Sunday Christians who live the rest of the week as if God doesn’t exist – then the message we send to the world is one of hypocrisy and people will turn away.

So you’re thinking… OK Daryl you’ve had a big long rant, what does it all mean to me here and now…

It means that we who have placed our faith and hope in Jesus have a God in whom we can trust.  It means we have a God on whom we can lean in the hard times and with whom we can rejoice in the good times.  It means that we can have confidence that we are truly known, truly called and truly loved, and that we can boldly live our lives as his disciples.

It all means that if you are someone who has not ever freely given yourself over to Jesus – now is a good time to do it.  God already knows you, he created you and he is calling you into relationship with him.  He loves you so deeply that he went to the cross for you, he conquered death for you and is offering you a new way – a way that leads to life in abundance.  Are you sceptical? That’s OK… why not just come and see?

The Lord be with you…

 

 

 

The Word This Week:

1 Samuel 15:34 – 16:13
Mark 4:26-34

You can download the mp3 of the sermon below, or use the player to stream it over the web.  Alternatively the full text is provided below.

The Word This Week:

• Acts 10:34-43 or Jeremiah 31:1-6  • 
• Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24  • 
• Colossians 3:1-4 or Acts 10:34-43  • 
• John 20:1-18 or Matthew 28:1-10

Thoughts on the Word:


Matthew 28:1-10 (NRSV)

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Let us pray – In the name of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit Amen.
Alleluia! Alleluia! He is not here, but has risen!

Today we remember the great triumph in the greatest events in the history of the world – today we remember and praise God that the death of Jesus which we remembered on Friday was not the end, today we remember that he rose again in triumph over the power of death and sin.  On Friday Jesus willingly laid down His own life, and took the just consequence of sin in his own body.  He willingly took the consequence that we have earned, through our sins even though he himself was sinless.  Friday ends with Jesus  taken and put into a tomb  where –  it was supposed – he would stay.

On Saturday his followers faithfully observe the Sabbath – even in their grief and agony over the death of Jesus they remain faithful to God –  but on Sunday Mary Magdalene and the ‘other Mary’ return to the tomb.  These two mourning women encounter an earthquake and the appearance of an Angel, the tomb which they have come to mourn at is opened and the Angel seeing what we can only imagine to be two terrified women in front of Him says “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ …

Now there are so many things we can talk about with regard to the resurrection – we will discuss the importance of its conquering power over death, and what that means  for all of us who have placed our faith in Jesus… hint it means that death will have no hold on us just as it had no hold on Christ! We could talk about the significance of the crucifixion which lead to the resurrection – that moment in time when Jesus took upon himself the sin of the world and opened the door to a life in relationship with God for all those who seek it. 

What I want to talk about first though is the people who Jesus surrounded himself in his life, his death and his resurrection.  Jesus, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, did not surround himself with nobility, he did not surround himself with upright individuals who were well respected.  He did not surround himself with the righteous, but weak sinners – sinners like you and me.

Jesus’ closest companions along the way were a band of everyday workers – fisherman – tax collectors, and even lower in the social order than tax collectors – women. Jesus opened the door to salvation to all of humanity, and to demonstrate that all were welcome, and that all were loved, he chose the weak and oppressed, the sinners and the poor to be his witnesses.  Nothing speaks of this more than the role that women played in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

In Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:39-55) we find that the first proclamation of the coming of the Messiah who will redeem Israel, and indeed the world, is anticipated and proclaimed, not by archangels or high priests or emperors or even ordained ministers. Rather, two marginalised, pregnant women—Mary young, poor, and unwed, and Elizabeth  far beyond the age to conceive—meet in Judea to celebrate (and maybe even console each other about) their miraculous pregnancies. Elizabeth exclaims: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” to which Mary responds by singing those wonderful words proclaiming God’s faithfulness and mercy in the Magnificat.

Yes, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings is first acknowledged and proclaimed by two women…  Two women who were no doubt the subject of much ridicule and stigma – Mary after all was an unwed pregnant teenager – consider how today’s comparatively liberal society still denigrates and looks down on women in the same situation, and then consider how it would have been for her living in ancient Jewish society where such a situation was not just embarrassing – but shameful.  Likewise consider how society still treats women who have reached their mature years without ever having had children – there is, shamefully in today’s world still a stigma, a  view that these women, are incomplete – not real women, or that they are simply selfish.  Imagine then the views expressed of barren Elizabeth, who had not born any children, in a society where family and heirs were how your worth were expressed – Where a woman’s worth especially was determined by how many sons she bore her husband. 

Yet it was these two, ostracised, marginalised women whom God chose to bring the final prophet of the old covenant – John the baptist – and the fulfilment of that covenant – Jesus – into the world. It was these two women  who first proclaimed the coming of the King!  We see in this account the first tearing down of barriers to the Kingdom, the first signs of what the coming reign of Jesus will be like.

When we move forward to the cross, we find that at the foot of the cross, it is predominantly women who remain with Jesus, the three Mary’s – Mary his mother, Mary Magdalene and Mary the wife of Clopas along with the Apostle John – everyone else has abandoned him in fear.  Then we come to the tomb on that Sunday morning, and who do we find going to the tomb – before the Sun has risen?  Yep, it is those who are the weakest, and most powerless in the society that yet again are chosen to be the first to hear, and then first to proclaim the news – Jesus is not in the tomb, He is risen!

Again and again Jesus chooses those who society would say are not worthy. Again and again God blesses those who are not those that society would deem to be ‘worthy’ of association with God. 

So how does this relate to us today?

Well, let me break this to you gently – you aren’t worthy.  Neither am I – in fact not one person on this planet is ‘good’ enough to get into heaven.  We can never – ever- earn our way into the eternal presence of God through our own actions, because we all sin – and even one sin means we cannot enter his presence. 

Now, for the good part – just like the women in Jesus life, whom society deemed to be not worthy of real respect, and little more than objects, but whom Jesus deemed to be so valuable that he entrusted them with the greatest of honours. To be the first to proclaim his birth, to be present at his death and to be the first witnesses and proclaimers of his resurrection.   Just like these women you are valuable in his sight, you are worthy of his love, and you can be redeemed and have your sin wiped away so that you can get to live eternally in the presence of God after all.  All he asks is that you place your faith and hope in him. 

Brothers and sisters, Jesus rose from death! Not in some metaphorical sense, he really rose from death and by doing so He has defeated sin’s hold on us and calls us to place our hope and trust in him.  When we do so, as St Paul says in his letter to the Church at Rome – we share in his death, and resurrection.

He says : Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

Therefore brothers and sisters rejoice, give thanks and praise God! For Christ calls all to follow him, all are welcome and through his death and resurrection all who place their faith in him are made one with him and are set free from the chains of sin and death.

Alleluia! Alleluia! He is not here, but has risen!

The Word This Week:

• Genesis 3:8-15  
• Mark 3:20-35

The Word This Week: 

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 
Matthew 22:15-22

Let us pray. In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Good morning/evening 

Today I want us to take a look at both our Gospel reading and our reading from Paul’s first letter to the Church at Thessalonica.  The reason is because, whilst on first glance they may seem to be on about completely different things – They are in fact pointing us to the same thing.   

Let’s begin with the Thessalonian church.  Paul in this opening section of the letter is heavy on the praise for the Thessalonians – he speaks of their “work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  He praises their faith by declaring “the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” Paul continues his praise – declaring that the Thessalonians became imitators of the Lord and examples to all the believers in their part of the world. Not only that but that their faith was renowned everywhere. 

The Thessalonians had the fever.  They were alive in their faith and they were clearly living it out.  So much so that the people around them were talking about them – talking about the faith on display, talking about the transformation in their lives – how they had turned away from their former lifestyles to a new life in the Lord Jesus.  People spoke of how they had welcomed Paul, and his companions, of the hospitality they had received.  The faith of these Christians was so evident that Paul didn’t need to tell anyone about it – they already knew. They had seen this faith lived out, or they had heard of it from others. 

Whilst I was reading this passage and preparing to preach this week, it brought to mind one of the questions that the bishop posed to us at Synod, and in his pastoral letter.  What are we doing for our community?  The Thessalonian church was so alive with their faith that they became renowned, for their hospitality, love and care for one and other.  They became a beacon of hope in the community, they were the light in the darkness.  

I wonder brothers and sisters, if people speak of our church community in the same way? Are we renowned for our faith? Why not? The Thessalonians suffered persecution for their faith, yet persevered in it and boldly lived it out as those who believed it wholeheartedly. We live in a western liberal democracy, without fear of persecution, and yet I hear people ask the question – what is an Anglican? How can it be? Is it perhaps my brothers and sisters that we have lost some of the fire? Can it be that we are people who intellectually ‘believe’ but have not placed our whole heart into it?  

Last week Fr Clyde talked to us about the importance of being dressed right for the wedding banquet – by placing Jesus at the centre of our lives as both Saviour and Lord. We need to not just be people who intellectually assent to the Christian faith – we need to be people who have an active faith – a faith that is alive and is evidenced by how we interact with each other and the world – a faith that says Jesus is not just my saviour, but he is my Lord and my King! This is the kind of faith that St James in his letter calls us to have when he warns us that a faith without works is dead – mere intellectual assent or religious adherence won’t do – for even the demons believe, and shudder. The Thessalonians had a faith that was more than mere belief – they had given themselves completely over to God. 

And this is the kind of faith that Jesus calls us to in our Gospel reading from Matthew today.  When we look at this interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees and Herodians we often focus on the question of what is a Christian’s obligation to the state.  But Jesus points us to a deeper question here, a question which rather than focussing on what our obligations to the state are, and whether we should honour them, focusses instead on what our obligation to God is, and how we are called to honour that.   

The Pharisees and the Herodians that we come across in this story would have been bitter enemies – think republicans vs loyalist – the Herodians were those who had cast their lot in with Rome, and so were fans of the Emperor and of his local lacky Herod Antipas.   whereas the Pharisees were aghast at paying the taxes to the Romans – the emperor claimed for himself divinity, and the coin that was used to pay the taxes included this claim that the emperor was in fact divine.  This sort of Blasphemy was abhorrent to the pharisees. It seems though they had a common enemy – Jesus.  They collude together to try and trap him – if he says pay the tax the Pharisess can accuse him of joining the heresy of the Romans.  If he says don’t pay the tax the Herodians have cause to accuse him of sedition againts Rome.  

So what does Jesus do? Whose image is this on the coin, he says… Caesar’s … well give to Caesar what is Caesar’s … and give to God what is God’s…  The question about the image that Jesus poses here is important – not only because it enables him to turn the plotting of the Herodians and Pharisees on its head, but because Jesus is pointing us to the deeper truth.  The coin is made bearing Caeser’s image, and so it belongs to Caesar… Genesis 1:26 says Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image,… and verse 27 says So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them;  male and female he created them. 

We are made in the image of God.  We were made to belong to God –  to be in relationship with God. When we sin we are separated from Him.  When we seek to live selfishly, when we focus on what we want at the expense of others, when we refuse to give all of ourselves over to God – when we give ourselves instead over to the idols of this world, in pursuit of money, of accolades, of praise from others, we go against the very reason we were created.  

You see Jesus is pointing us to our reason for being.  We were made to be in perfect communion with God – and so great is God’s love for us that Jesus was willing to take the consequence for our sin on the cross. Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of Lords died for us! He died so we could live! 

All we need do is put our faith in his redeeming work.  Faith is what saves us – but faith in the scriptural sense is a verb, it is active – it is something that sees action in our hearts and in our lives.  If we truly have placed all of our faith – all of our hearts and minds – if we have truly given ourselves over to Christ. If we have truly recognised that Jesus is not just our saviour but also our Lord, and if we truly believe and accept that we were made in the image of God, to be in relationship with Him.  Then we are called to be Christians just like those at the Church at Thessalonica.   

We are called to be Christians who love and care for each other and for the wider community, who despite difficulties and hardship live our faith out boldly and joyfully in service to one and other.  We are called to be people who give of our time and of our treasure sacrificially.  We are called to be people who are renowned throughout the land for our faith, hope and love! 

Conclusion 

My brothers and sisters It is so easy for us to fall into a comfortable rhythm of religious observance and intellectual assent without truly giving our whole selves over to God.  We can so easily fall into the trap that Satan sets for us – that trap where we believe that we can just cruise along – after all we’re ‘good’ people, and we believe.  The question we need to ask ourselves regularly is  have I handed myself over to God? Has my life been transformed? Is my faith active, and real? or have I fallen into the trap of merely following the religious observance.   

I pray that we as a community of faith will see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a revival of faith, so that we each would be willing everyday to commit ourselves anew to the Lord.  I pray that we as a community would be so full of faith that we would become renowned throughout the land – so that no one ever asks again the question ‘what is an Anglican?‘. I pray that as we all recommit ourselves to God – willingly handing ourselves over to Him, that we would be a beacon of light amongst the darkness and fallen-ness of the world.  

Above all I pray that you would join me in praying these things for us and recommitting ourselves in real and active faith to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. 

The Lord be with you. 


  

The Word This Week:

• Isaiah 60:1-6 
• Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14 
• Ephesians 3:1-12 
• Matthew 2:1-12

Let us pray…

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we celebrate the Epiphany of Jesus – An epiphany is a theophany,  a manifestation of the divine, an appearance of God that may be unexpected,  unnerving and almost always unsettling. The wise men experienced what was an Epiphany when they found the baby Jesus (not in a manger as we often think, for the wise men come later – our text tells us that they entered a house) – When they found him they experienced a supernatural event which not only changed their lives but the entire world, when God was made incarnate as a human being – a helpless babe.  The thing I want us to focus on though, is what is often overlooked in this story of the wise men, how they reached that house, so that they could experience this theophany – this manifestation of God in their midst, and as we look to the wise men’s journey to God we will find lessons for us to help us on our own journey.

Firstly, when this story is retold it is often overlooked that the wise men first go to Jerusalem, and not to Bethlehem.  What is the significance of this you may wonder.  Many would state that these men would of course go to Jerusalem as it was the capital, and where you would expect to find a King – and this is correct.  What is also often portrayed however is that the wise men followed the star the whole way from their home in the East, that they were guided the whole way – our story doesn’t bear witness to that though. 

If our wise men were following the star for the whole journey, why did it lead them to Jerusalem? Why not directly to Bethlehem where their Epiphany awaited? No, the wise men were not following a star the whole way – our Gospel account tells us that they came to Jerusalem because they saw the star ‘at its rising’ .  You see these men saw something, that to them indicated something special was happening – they then took a journey – on faith – to Jerusalem, because they believed that what they had seen indicated the coming of a King.  Only when they had reached Jerusalem, and sought council from Herod, and the Jewish chief priests and scribes, were they provided with the knowledge to take them to where they needed to be.  Then, only once they had that knowledge,  were they guided  by the star to the house in Bethlehem, where they had their Epiphany – their experience of the divine.

So let’s recap – Step 1 The wise men see something, they are prompted by a sign, a calling of the star, and thinking there might be something to it they take a journey – on faith to Jerusalem. 

Step 2: They don’t find what they were looking for in Jerusalem, what a disappointment! Much like our own faith journey, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the wise men. But rather than wallow in self-pity over what seemed like a wasted journey,   they seek more knowledge to enable them to continue on their journey of faith.

Step 3, their persistent faith, and willingness to follow their calling pays off and they are guided on their journey, to a place where they can experience the divine.

You see in order to find the divine you need faith, persistence, and a willingness to follow God’s call to revelation. 

 … But what does that mean for us – here and now? Well it means if you are someone who has not experienced the salvation on offer through Jesus, the three wise men tell you what you must do in order to have your own epiphany – take a leap of faith, seek knowledge and help when you need it, and be prepared to let God lead you to your very own epiphany, where you can experience your own divine moment in receiving the gift of forgiveness and salvation through Christ.

For those of us who have already placed our faith and hope in Christ, what do we learn – presumably we have had our own journey, to our own epiphany, so what now? Well firstly our journey is not over, and there are many many more chances for us to experience the presence of God in our midst – we too must continue our faith journey following the model of the wise men – being prepared to let God be our guide. 

We as the people of God, have another important role though – and our reading from Isaiah points us to it.

Now when we look to our reading from the prophet Isaiah today, we as Christians have a tendency to just overlay Jesus into it. When we read Isaiah saying ‘arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you’ we instinctively see Jesus. And it is a great explanation of the epiphany of Christ.  However, is that the message of Isaiah? Was he pointing to the coming of the Messiah? Well… yes and no…

Chapters 60–62 of Isaiah portray Jerusalem as “a bereaved woman,”. In them, the prophet surprises his own listeners’ ears. Using the vocabulary of royalty, he applies it not to the house of David (as his contemporary Jewish listeners might expect) but to the city of Zion and Israel as a whole. In the first twenty-two verses of chapter 60 (from which today’s passage comes), the “prophet does not look forward to the arrival of a human Messiah to liberate the Israelites or a human king to govern them. Rather, God will rule the nation directly in the future, and the whole nation will enjoy royal status.”

For the prophet, God’s glory is completed in the glorification of God’s people. Their radiance is essential to any bright future of God’s own imagining. If they hope to sit on the sidelines while someone else shines instead of them, then they have missed their central role in God’s vision. They are not God, but God’s presence will be seen over them (v. 2 JPS). They are not kings, but kings shall walk by their shining radiance (v. 3 JPS).

Brothers and sisters we are Israel, we are adopted as God’s people when we place our faith in Christ.  We are a royal priesthood.  Christ is ‘the light that has come’ but we are to be stars rising which call people to seek the King, we are to be like the scribes and chief priests from our Gospel reading as we guide those who seek, and pass on our knowledge of the divine – and then we hand it over to God so that he might guide those who yearn for him the last steps on the journey – until they too experience their own epiphany.

As we recall the epiphany of Christ to the wise men today, let us take pause and reflect on our role as members of the body of Christ.  Let us look to how we can display the radiance of the love of God in the world. Let us remember that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, and that through us God can make his presence known in the world.

Dear brothers and sisters as the prophet says ‘arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you’

The Word This Week:

Matthew 25:14-30

This morning I want us to look at the parable of the talents which we have just heard.  But before we dig into it we need to set the scene a little.  This parable is set at the end of a lengthy discourse beginning at the start of chapter 24 where Jesus is describing the second coming and the judgement at the end. Jesus has used multiple parables to describe this for us  – he began by providing signs that the end is near, but then followed by warning that no-one knows the hour, and not to be fooled by those who claim they know.  He then proceeded to tell the parable of the 10 bridesmaids, which pointed us to being prepared for the return of the Lord, lest we be found ill prepared and get left in the darkness.  Jesus follows on from that parable with this one about the talents – and continues the theme of being prepared for the return of the master.

The master in the parable represents Jesus, the Son of Man. The slaves entrusted with the talents symbolize members of the church. The departure of the master points to Jesus’ ascension to the Father, while his return is the Parousia – the second coming. The rewards and punishment indicate the final judgement. So lets look at the parable in detail.

This parable has three main parts. In the first part (vv. 14–15), the master, who is about to embark on a journey, calls three slaves and entrusts them with talents. The word “talent” (talanton) here does not refer to individual gifts of capabilities as we often understand it in contemporary English. Talent refers here to an extremely large sum of money – it would have been the equivalent of about 15 years average wages. Now the master gives different amounts (five, two, and one talent), depending on the ability of the slaves – but as we can see even the one who is given one talent has been entrusted with an incredible treasure. But The discretion and care of the master are worth recognising here. He carefully considers his servants’ capabilities; so he does not impose an unreasonable burden on them. Nor does the master give specific directions; instead,he allows his servants the freedom to take initiative (cf. Luke19:13).

God provides us with much in this world.  We have been given the most valuable of things imaginable  – firstly our very lives  and secondly  the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the news of salvation, a salvation that is available to any who would take up this offer.  We have been entrusted with the keys to heaven – with the map that shows the way to eternal life.  So … Just like the servants in our parable we have been entrusted with the master’s greatest treasure…

In the second part of the story (vv. 16–18), Jesus continues the parable by explaining what the servants do after being entrusted with this treasure…  The first two are extraordinarily productive. Their trading results in a 100 percent profit. These servants have discerned well, taken appropriate risks, and acted responsibly with their master’s resources they have multiplied the treasure. The third slave, the one entrusted with a single talent, does things a little differently. He plays things safe and buries the money in the ground (an action that in the first century was regarded as a good security measure – as long as you remembered where you put it!).

What are we doing with the great treasure that we have been entrusted with brothers and sisters?  Are we like the first two slaves in this parable? Do we go forth with the treasure and invest it in order to see an increase in God’s kingdom? Are we willing to take risks – as the slaves in the parable must have – all investment carries risk – Are we willing to take risks to increase the kingdom? Are we invested in living our faith, in proclaiming it to the world – are we passionate about the things which Jesus calls us as his disciples to be passionate about? Do our lives as Christians and as a church draw others to us, and to Christ, and thus see an increase in the Kingdom?

Or are we perhaps a little like the third slave in the parable? Are we content that we have the treasure.. have we insulated ourselves from the world, where there is no risk, where we can just tuck our faith away into a little corner – where it is ‘safe’.

The third part of the story (vv. 19–30),  concerns the settling of accounts upon the master’s return. The opening words of verse 19—“After a long time”—refer to the delay of the return of the Christ in glory. The industrious slaves are positive examples of how Christians are to conduct themselves in the present. When the master calls them to give an account of their activity, they do so with confidence (vv. 20, 22): they have acted faithfully, and produced works of love compassion and mercy (what the talents symbolize). The master responds enthusiastically to the first two slaves: “Well done, good and trustworthy slave.”In addition to being put in charge of many things, they are invited to, “Enter into the joy of your master” (vv. 21, 23).Entering into joy alludes to the messianic banquet, which was portrayed in the preceding parable (of the ten bridesmaides) as a wedding feast(25:10). What is important for us in this is that the first and second slaves receive the exact same reward, despite the difference in amounts they have presented to their master. this shows us that it is not our accomplishments in a quantitative sense but our faithfulness and commitment.

But what of the third slave? The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is not to risk anything,not to care deeply and profoundly enough about anything to invest deeply, to give your heart away and in the process risk everything. The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is to play it safe, to live cautiously and prudently – to tuck our faith away in the corner – or bury it out of sight – and live as though it wasn’t there. That is what the third slave did.  He knew he had the treasure – he knew he could do much with it and could even multiply it… but that was uncomfortable… that was risky, it meant stepping out of the comfort of the everyday and he just didn’t think it was worth it.

Conventional theology often identifies sin as pride and egotism. However, there is an entire other lens through which to view the human condition. It is called sloth – or apathy, one of the ancient church’s seven deadly sins. It means not caring, not loving, not rejoicing,not living up to the full potential of our humanity, playing it safe, investing nothing, being cautious and prudent, digging a hole and burying the money – or our faith –  in the ground.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the sin of respectable people is running from responsibility. We have been entrusted with a great treasure brothers and sisters, and the responsibility that comes with it.

How important is this personally, in terms of how we live our lives? Jesus’ warning is that the outcome of playing it safe—not caring, not loving passionately, not investing yourself,not risking anything—is something akin to death, like being banished to the outer darkness.

Now for most of us, religion, our personal faith, has not seemed like a high-risk venture. In fact, it has seemed to be something like the opposite. Faith has seemed to be a personal comfort zone. Faith, many of us think, is about personal security, – afterlife insurance. Faith, we think, is no more risky than believing ideas in our heads about God and Jesus, a list of beliefs to which we more or less subscribe – intellectually at least. Faith, we sometimes think, is getting our personal theology right and then living a good life by avoiding bad things. Religion, we think, is a pretty timid, non risky venture.

But what Jesus invites us to be is not timid, apathetic religious people – he calls us to be  his disciples – that means we are called to be his followers – to live our lives as fully as possible by investing them, by risking, by expanding the horizons of our responsibilities. Jesus in this parable tells us that being a disciple of his, is not so much about intellectually assenting to ideas about him  – it is about truly seeking to follow him. It is to experience renewed responsibility for the use and investment of these precious lives of ours. It is to be bold and brave, to live out our faith as beacons that draw others into the kingdom, it is to reach high and care deeply.


The Lord be with you.