Sermon Sunday before Lent St Anne’s, Brown Edge
On Wednesday I managed at
last to plant the Christmass tree that had been sitting in a pot outside my
front door since December.
A number of Churches do of
course keep at least the Crib present until the 2nd February,
Candlemass, or The Feast of the Presentation, this year brought forward
slightly and celebrated on Sunday 28th January.
We then have a kind of
hiatus in our readings and reflections.
We are of course going to move into Lent this coming Wednesday.
Falling as it does this
year on the 14th February will cause some a conflict interest I am
sure. Much the same as Easter Day– which this year is the 1st April
Therefore, this year we
have two Sundays between the close of the Epiphany Season and the beginning of
Lent.
Last week we were asked to
consider John’s opening prologue and about Jesus coming as a Light to the
World. A passage often read during the Christmass season.
It is as if we are being
asked to really think long and hard about the baby whose birth we have recently
celebrated.
Today we are offered the
story of the transfiguration, which has its own dedicated Feast Day on the 6th
August.
However it seems right and
proper that we should think about this story now.
A journey that will be
full of joy, misunderstanding, puzzlement, betrayal, torture and death – and
much more when what appears to be the greatest tragedy turns out to be the
greatest triumph and the world is changed for ever.
In Mark’s Gospel narrative this is where the
transfiguration is placed.
It comes shortly after
Peter’s confession -
Mark 8 29 He said to
them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to
Him, “You are the Christ.”
This is a turning point in
Mark’s Gospel – now we see Jesus facing towards Jerusalem to fulfill all that
was required of Him.
And just a little like a
pre-match pep talk Jesus meets with Elijah and Moses – representing the law,
Moses, and the prophets, Elijah.
But of course it is much
more than this and a full understanding of this event will only come to light
after Jesus is raised from death as Messiah and ruler over both heaven and
earth.
Moses and Elijah, Law and
Prophecy – and Jesus said on one occasion…
"Do
not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come
to abolish them but to fulfill them.
The great prophetic promise
that God would lead his people out of bondage and slavery into the Promised
Land – prefigured in the nation of Israel but now to get a greater meaning and
a fuller depth as we come to grasp that this means out of the slavery of sin
and death and into life in all its fullness.
Into the Promised Land
when earth and heaven are conjoined as God comes to dwell with His people.
A time when all sorrow and
sighing and death are no more.
However there is a journey
through torture and crucifixion where all the sins of the world, all the poison
and venom are soaked into the body of Jesus on the cross.
And the Law – an
unfortunate word for us because we naturally think of the letter of the law,
the full weight of the law, law abiding.
Jesus was to point out on
one occasion that all these are outwards signs that may not have any inner
reality...
Matthew 23:27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you ... ... You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on
the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything
unclean. ...
Ezekiel 36. 25 – 27 is
very important to understand in this unfolding drama of God’s plans and purposes
– we read
"Then
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you
from all your filthiness and from all your idols. “Moreover, I will give you a
new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
"I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My
statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.…
So here we are on the
brink of another Lent – called again to walk with Jesus, to celebrate and rejoice
on Palm Sunday, to watch as Jesus enters into his final week as we focus even
more closely on His Passion.
As we are caught up one
more in the drama of all of this it is worth our reflecting on our
understanding of all that came to pass.
Are we living by the
letter of the law or by the spirit of the law?
Can we say that we have
hearts of flesh and not of stone?
How have we grown both
individually and as a Faith Community since the last time we made this journey
with Jesus?
Because there is always
the danger that having made this journey many times we no longer take much
notice of what is happening around us.
We can become deaf to the
sounds of hosanna or the sound of crucify him or the sound of the whip and nails
being driven into flesh.
Unmoved by the anguished
cry wrung from Jesus lips, Eli Eli
Sabacthani, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.
We may not even hear that
wonderful whisper of victory – 'it is finished.'
And the world continues to
go on its way – and the people of Brown Edge continue to walk by and maybe
occasionally look up and see St Anne’s and maybe, just maybe, on the very odd
occasion think of what happens up here.
They know about baptisms, the weddings
and the funerals – but what else happens up there and does it have any bearing
on my life – probably not, I have enough things to worry about without adding
yet more stress or complications.
G. A. Studdert-Kennedy put it very well when he penned this poem…
When
Jesus Came to Birmingham
When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by.
They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.
When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by.
They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.
Still Jesus cried, 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do, '
And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall, and cried for Calvary.
Perhaps, just perhaps, people are not looking up the hill to St Anne’s because
the fire has gone out.
The passion, the excitement, the enthusiasm to see men,
woman, boys and girls come to a living faith and find that in Jesus there is life
and life in all its fullness, to quote John 10.10.
For it is the God who said, ‘Let light
shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Let’s resolve to journey with Jesus to Jerusalem and
become transformed and transfigured so that we may shine with the light and
glory of God.
Amen.
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