St
Bartholomew 15th January 2017
At the danger of making this a three-point sermon,
there are in fact three points I would like to draw out from our Gospel reading
for this morning.
Note if you will that, it says the sin of the world, singular, not sins plural as often misquoted.
So – what exactly might the sin of the world be?
I have been pondering this
and looking at commentaries and various video clips.
The common understanding is that it is rejection and rebellion against God.
However, I am still
puzzling over this and in particular when it says, ‘sin of the world.’
Could it be that the
world, the created order is somehow caught up in sin?
Is this what lies behind
Romans 8.22…?
‘We
know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth
right up to the present time.’
In Mark 16.15 we read, 'Jesus said to them go into all the world and preach the Gospel...'
That is certainly
something St Francis took to heart.
Graham Tomlin in his 2014
book ‘The Widening Circle’ - priesthood as a way of blessing the world, argues
that the role of the Priest is to model Christ as the Great High Priest. Their
call is to mediate and enable creation to give glory back to God. In this task,
the priest reminds the people of God of their role in enabling humanities role
in enabling creation to give glory back to the Creator.
In short – we need an
expansive view of sin and salvation that includes not only the sin of the
individual but also the sin of the world.
Maybe the Holy Hill vision
of Isaiah chapter 11 is the true destiny of creation.
To remind you that chapter begins with…
‘A
shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear
fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and
of fear of the Lord.’
It then goes on to say…
The
wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah prophesied that, The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him.
‘Then
John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and
remain on him.
Our Gospel account continues…
The next day John was there again with
two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said,
“Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say
this, they followed Jesus.
And here I want to say
something about discipleship and being disciples, my second point.
Matthew closes his Gospel
with a command from Jesus to his followers to go and make disciples of all the
nations.
He does not tell them to
build or establish a church, so people can become ‘churchgoers’ – he doesn’t
ask us to encourage people to be good people, he commands us to make disciples.
Turning
around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said,
“Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,”
he replied, “and you will see.”
So
they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It
was about four in the afternoon.
This tells us something about
how being a disciple was understood in the 1st century – the way of
Jesus’ disciples.
Let me put it like this.
If you decided to become a disciple of Fr Stuart, you would want to hear his
teaching and so you would gather around him to listen to what he taught.
However, you would also want to know how he lived, how he ate, drank, and how
be conducted himself in day-to-day life. You would want to follow him everywhere
you possibly could. In short, you would want to mirror everything Fr Stuart did
and become a carbon copy because you believed he offered the best way and model
of being in the world.
As Disciples of Christ we
are called to be ‘little Christ’ – to be as Christ in the world, to be the
ongoing incarnation – Emmanuel through us.
Ephesians
4:11-13
Christ
chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, and teachers,
so that his people would learn to serve and his body would grow strong. This
will continue until we are united by our faith and by our understanding of the
Son of God. Then we will be mature, just
as Christ is, and we will be completely like him.
‘One of the two men who had heard John
and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. The
first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “We have found the
Messiah!” The Hebrew word “Messiah” means the same as the Greek word “Christ.” Andrew
brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, “Simon son of
John, you will be called Cephas.” This name can be translated as “Peter
My third point – disciples
make disciples, how could it not be so.
If we have found and been
captivated by the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ and know our sins have
been forgiven. If we have found in Him Good News – then surely, as night
follows day we would want to share that with others wouldn’t we.
Not in a preachy,
constantly Scripture quoting judgmental sort of way…
‘But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give
an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you
have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
1 Peter 3.15
To win some we need to be
winsome.
To summarize…
Jesus is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world and invites us to become His devoted
disciple making disciples who proclaim in word and deed the Good News that God
will bring everything into good order with a redeemed and conjoined heaven and
earth.
Therefore to quote Mother
Julian, ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things
shall be well.’
Let me close with a short Mediation
from His Holiness Pope Benedict XV1
And only where God is
seen does life truly begin.
Only when we meet the
living God in Christ do we know what life is.
We are not some casual
and meaningless product of evolution.
Each of us is the
result of a thought of God.
Each of us is willed,
Each of us is loved,
Each of us is
necessary.
There is nothing more
beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel,
By the encounter with
Christ.
There is nothing more
beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.
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