Sermon St Anne’s, Brown Edge 13th January 2019
Isaiah 43.1-7 Psalm 29 Acts
8.14-17 Luke 3.15-17, 21, 22
Have you packed away all
the Christmass decorations yet?
Maybe so – but perhaps you
are allowing the Nativity scene to linger longer.
Many Churches keep their
Nativity on display until the 2nd February and the Feast of
Candlemass – the story of Jesus’ presentation in the temple as according to
custom. Or as I saw in many Churches on holiday recently at least the Baby Jesus
in his crib.
Candlemass is the time
when Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple after forty days and they are
greeted by Anna and Simeon.
Then there is silence
apart from Luke who alone gives us that intriguing story of Jesus at the age of
twelve going on a visit to the Temple.
I picked up a book titled The
Lamb some years ago when I was in America. (Christopher Moore, Harper Collins 2007))
Perhaps not so well known
over here, in America it was very popular even among Christians.
I say that because it is a
story based around Jesus’ childhood. It is a tad tongue in cheek in most places
and yet it has a certain charm and an allure.
Of course there are other
works that try and make suggestions about Jesus as a child, often with
fantastical tales as he discovers his powers.
But we simply do not know
about Jesus’s childhood from any firm Biblical sources.
What puzzles me is what people
thought about Jesus as he grew up.
Not long ago we heard
about angels visiting shepherds, strange visitors bringing exotic and deeply
symbolic gifts. We hear about Simeon and Anna and their prophecies over Jesus.
We are told that the
shepherds told everyone of what had occurred.
And something new I
learned last year. These particular sheep where Temple sheep, bred for
sacrificial purposes and the shepherds would have regular contact with the
temple.
How hard is it to imagine
that given all of this, Mary and Joseph simply returned to Nazareth and took up
their life again?
Today, coming out of the
puzzlement and silence of his childhood years Jesus emerges as his cousin is
baptizing in the river Jordan – being about thirty years old as the Scripture
tells us.
Today’s Gospel offers us
only a few scant verses with regard to Jesus’ baptism by John. It is well worth
looking at the other Gospel accounts and reading all that we are told about
this event.
Although we have a scant
reading we do have the very important witness to Jesus’ call.
In much the same way as we
have been thinking about as we have reheard and rehearsed once more the
Christmass story,
The Spirit descends as a
dove and then a voice declaring, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am
well pleased.’
Jesus would have heard
similar words before.
At some point Joseph would
have taken Jesus into the market place and said something similar.
I am pleased to announce
this is my son and we are now in business together.
This was to announce that
father and son are now working together. What one says and does goes for both
of them. If you have trusted the father and have found him worthy of employment
then you can now trust the son in the same way.
At his baptism Jesus receives
a new vocation and a new calling, this time from His Father in heaven.
This time he is building
the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth.
He will fashion it well
and call others to help in the task.
It is an open structure as
read about in Acts where Samaritans are welcomed into the fellowship of God,
previously debarred and considered unclean.
It is a Kingdom of God
that thunders with praise as we heard from our Psalm,
‘The
voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord over
mighty waters.’
It is a Kingdom full of
promise as prophesied by Isaiah…
‘But
now says the Lord, he who created you O Jacob, he who formed you O Israel: Do
not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’
I
have called you by name, you are mine,’ words to be echoed years later at Jesus’ baptism
as the Holy Spirits falls upon him in the form of a dove.
What slightly puzzles me
is that given all that we have heard about Jesus’ birth and his presentation in
the temple, with Simeon and Anna. Given all that was said about Jesus as a baby,
how is it that his appearing at his baptism as someone ‘marked out’ and his
subsequent ministry was such an apparent surprise, even to his own family?
We even have that curious
episode where Jesus’s mother and his family seem to think he has lost the plot
and go to try and constrain him, only to receive a slight rebuff from Jesus
about whom his family really is, and that’s not about biological lineage.
Have you ever pondered on
what ever happened to the gold, frankincense and myrrh?
That leads me to reflect
that we can also be forgetful about the things God has said and done in our
lives in the past.
Okay we need to be
cautious about living on yesterday’s manna – we need to always walk in God’s
will and way as it revealed to us today.
However if learn anything
from the Old Testament and the People of God it is that they remembered God’s
faithfulness in the past and this gave them hope for the future.
Hope – as an acronym… H O
P E
Holding Onto Past
Experiences.
I wonder what stories you
can tell about God’s faithfulness, both as individuals and as the People of God
at St Anne’s, Brown Edge.
What is your equivalent of
gold, frankincense and myrrh?
What gifts has God
bestowed upon you?
And looking back to the
faithfulness of God, the gifts given and the words of the prophets, God’s
People wondered if John the Baptist might be the long expected Messiah.
The one they were
expecting to come and usher in God’s Kingdom.
‘As
the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their
hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah.’
What are you expecting God
to do through you and with you in 2019?
What is your hope?
Where is it founded?
Do we look back in thankfulness
and forwards in expectancy and hope?
In contrast a negative
narrative that continues to talk about a reduction in numbers engaging with the
Church becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy and leads to hopelessness, despair
and lack of confidence in what God can do through us.
As we move into 2019 maybe
we could take to heart the words of this well known hymn by Keble…
New
every morning is the love
our wakening and uprising prove;
through sleep and darkness safely brought,
restored to life and power and thought.
New
mercies, each returning day,
hover around us while we pray;
new perils past, new sins forgiven,
new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
If
on our daily course our mind
be set to hallow all we find,
new treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
The
trivial round, the common task,
will furnish all we need to ask,
room to deny ourselves, a road
to bring us daily nearer God.
Or you could simply put
away all the decorations, the gold, frankincense and myrrh, the Nativity set
along with baby Jesus, either now or at Candlemass. We can choose to ignore and
forget about God’s words spoken over Jesus at his baptism. We can continue
whistling in the darkness of despair with nothing more than a vague hope for the future.
However if you are willing
to accept these words that God speaks over those baptized in the Faith; ‘You are my precious son, you are my precious
daughter, in you I am well pleased.
If we can accept our commission
and seek diligently the plan and purposes God has for our lives and for the
life of the People of God at Brown Edge, then be prepared to be amazed at the
things God will do in us and through us in the year ahead.
Let us pray together as we
move deeper into 2019
Father,
pour out your Spirit upon us
Grant
us a new vision of your glory.
A
new experience of your power.
A
new faithfulness to your word,
And
a new consecration to your service,
That
your love may grow among us
And
your Kingdom come;
Through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Thank you for this message. I wonder whether the gold and expensive ointments were sold to cover the cost of their stay In Egypt?
ReplyDelete