Who'd have thought it! Transcript of sermon St Mary's Rolleston (Evensong) 18th September 2016

Ezra 1 & John 7.14-36

‘Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.’ 

     

So closes 2 Chronicles with a theme picked up in the opening chapters of Ezra.

Ezra and Nehemiah are supplements to 1 & 2 Chronicles albeit there is some confusion and conflation between Ezra and Nehemiah.

All good stuff for Biblical studies; however, this is not where I would like to draw your attention.

Linking in this reading from Ezra with our reading from John’s Gospel I would like us to consider the phrase ‘Who’d have thought it.’

(Which by the way is the name of a very nice pub in St Dominic’s in South East Cornwall)

Cyrus the Great who had defeated the Babylonians gives an opportunity for the exiled Jews to return to Judah and rebuild the temple.

Again, a study of the Scriptures and other source documents will tell you it didn’t happen just like that, but that is not the point I am trying to get across.

Isaiah writes about Cyrus,

who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
    and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;
saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’
    and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”   

Isaiah 44.28 - and again in Isaiah 45.1-3

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
    whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
    and to loose the belts of kings,
to open doors before him
    that gates may not be closed “I will go before you
    and level the exalted places

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
    and cut through the bars of iron,
 I will give you the treasures of darkness
    and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
    the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

To the Lord’s anointed, to Cyrus the Persian, ‘who’d have thought it?’

God is sovereign and will work through whom he will work...

…“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.” “Do not stop him, Jesus replied, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”  Luke 9.50

Who are your allies, your friends? Who are those who might help forward the purposes of God and who might not yet be signed up as fully active Christians?

You might find yourself saying, ‘who’d have thought she or he would have helped.’

This may have a very particular point with regard to the rebuilding of the Temple, the house of God.

Now we know about the Temple and how it was destroyed in AD70.

We also know that we, our very bodies, are now the Temple of God,

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 1 Cor 6.19.

Yet we have an inheritance of buildings as places of worship and of prayer. 

Buildings that can stand as icon of God’s presence.

It may be that you need to seek out those, who like Cyrus, would be willing to help with the maintenance and upkeep. Not wanting to push this too far but do hold in mind Cyrus didn’t lay down how exactly how the temple was to be rebuilt. 

Therefore, as long as the people of God remain in control and keep in mind the missionary purposes of God then we can welcome help from Cyrus.

The Second Temple built by the returning exiles was the one Jesus would have known and where we find him as we pick up this story from John’s Gospel.

 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.  The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught.

This was the Feast of the Tabernacles – the time when the Israelite's would build small huts on their roofs to remind them of their dessert wanderings after escaping from Egypt.

And as the people listen to Jesus they are puzzled, very puzzled.

And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” John 7.12

‘How is that this man has such learning when he has never been to rabbinical school?’

He teaches with such authority.

But we know this man, we know his mum and dad, we know where he comes from.

This is a rich passage and you can hear people trying to fathom out just who this Jesus was. Even for those whom came to believe and acknowledge Jesus as Messiah, must have been saying to themselves ‘who’d have thought it?’

Perhaps none more so than James, the brother of Jesus who came late to an understanding and belief and yet was to become the leader of the early Christian community in Jerusalem.

As one Jewish friend of mine said, the problem I have with Jesus is that it is difficult for one Jew to believe another Jew could be divine!

And as you read this passage do you not wonder how Jesus came to this kind of realization, to be able to make such claims. To be able to speak with such authority and confidence picked up by Luke in his story of Jesus at the Temple as a young boy.

It was customary and keeping with rabbinical tradition that Jews in their teachings would refer to the teaching of another rabbi or holy book…

You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not murder,’ and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment Matthew 5.21

C S Lewis, the novelist and academic after converting from atheism to Christianity, said this of Jesus:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman, or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.

Finally let me remind you of Jesus’ forbear – David and the story of his being chosen and anointed.

 But the Lord told Samuel, “Don’t look at his appearance or how tall he is, because I have rejected him. God does not see as humans see. Humans look at outward appearances, but the Lord looks into the heart.”

And then from 1 Corinthians 1.25-27

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. Brothers, and sisters, consider the time of your calling: Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.…

Who’d have thought God would have called you and me to this place at this time to help with the further and fuller realization of the Lord’s Prayer working towards the redemption of the whole cosmos.

For as ‘Michael Quoist in his book ‘The Christian Response’ says…

‘You are a unique and irreplaceable actor in the drama of human history, and Jesus Christ has need of you to make known his salvific work in this particular place and at this particular moment in history.’

Let us pray…

O Saviour Christ, in whose way of love lays the secret of all life, and the hope of all people, we pray for quiet courage to match this hour. We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age; but let its problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us, its injustices anger us, it possibilities inspire us, and its vigour renew us. Pour out upon us a fresh indwelling of the Holy Spirit; make us bold and courageous in sharing faith in both word and deed for your Kingdom’s sake we ask.

Amen