Sermon St Anne's Brown Edge Third Sunday in Advent 2016
Isaiah
35.1-10 James 5.7-10 Matthew 11.2-111
A
couple of years ago when the race for the White House began in earnest not too
many people took notice of a brash billionaire businessman who had an unconventional
hairstyle and an even more unconventional rhetoric.
Yet
for many he is seen as their saviour, the one who will make America great
again. The one who will deal with the problems of the Mexican drug dealers
coming over the borders by building a wall. The one who would see that the
steel mills would start rolling again.
The one who would stop mass immigration. The one who would deal firmly
with any threat of terrorism even if that meant banning all Muslims from
entering the country for a period.
The
seemingly impossible has now happened and Trump is President elect of one of
the world’s most powerful nations. We wait to see just what kind of saviour he might be to the American people.
Some
have likened his rhetoric to another leader who came to power largely by the
democratic vote. He also had an unconventional hairstyle and his rhetoric was similar.
He would make Germanany great; he would bring back jobs and increase Germany’s
power across the world.
History
we know tells us the result of this man coming to power and being hailed as a
saviour, as the National Father.
We
have also recently had the death of another leader, Fidel Castro. A tyrant to
some but too many others he was their saviour and father of the nation.
Humanities
history is littered with those who were acclaimed as saviour, those who would
sort out all problems and bring peace and prosperity, even if that meant for a
while there had to be fighting and conflict.
It
was no different of course for the Israelites. They longed for, wrote about and
prophesied about a saviour, a messiah.
They
talked about two ages, this age and the age to come, which would be when their
God would be accepted as not only King over Israel but of the entire world.
That
is the background behind many of Isaiah’s prophesies such as we heard today.
They spoke of the time when the earth itself would be redeemed along with the
whole of the created order.
However
apart from a brief period during the time of the Maccabean revolt Israel had
been ruled by one pagan power after another for hundreds of years.
At
the time of Jesus, it was the Romans as the dominant superpower who subjugated
the Jewish nation.
Spurred
on by the promises and the prophecies many kingdom movements and would be
messiahs sprang up in this fertile ground of resistance and revolution.
They
felt that perhaps God was being a bit slow bringing about the age to come, the
new heaven and new earth, and so they would help God by fighting his enemies
who were oppressing God’s people.
To
this, hear Jesus say, ‘they that live by the sword will die by the sword.’ You cannot settle and eradicate violence by
using violence.
Into
this toxic mix John appears out of the dessert. An ascetic who had a penchant
for eating bugs and wearing a camel skin coat.
He
also spoke boldly announcing that the Messiah is arriving and the age to come was
about to dawn. Many flocked to hear him and then to be baptized by him as a
sign of their repentance.
We
need always to remember that repentance is more than feeling or saying sorry.
It is a 180-degree turn to walk in another direction. That is why John berated
the Pharisees.
It
was not good enough just to say you are sorry and to be baptized – it required
a change of heart and a change of direction.
Some
of course thought that John might be himself the Messiah. No, was his reply, I
am the one who prepares the way, to clear out the path. I baptize with water he
will baptize with fire and with the Spirit.
For
his forthright outspokenness, John finds himself a guest in the prison of Herod
Antipas, one of the sons of the baby killing Herod at the time of Jesus’ birth.
Understandably
John begins to ponder on whether he was right in pointing out Jesus as Messiah.
Many
that have been tried, tested, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus have
echoed John’s cry, have I made a mistake and got it all wrong. Something that
continues to this day to our brothers and sisters even as we are gathered here
this morning.
John
sends a message to Jesus – have I got it wrong, are you the one who is to come,
that is Messiah, or is there another.
Jesus’
enigmatic reply points John back to the Scriptures he knows and loves so well,
Scriptures he would have read and studied and pondered from his earliest days.
It
is even possible that as boys John and Jesus discussed the Scriptures together,
they were after all relatives.
Jesus
in particular points John back to Isaiah and the promises made about what
Messiah would achieve and accomplish.
What account had John heard about Jesus, healings of the blind and the
lame, the poor hearing the good news that they were blessed of God.
Jesus
then went on to praise John as being the last and the greatest of all prophets
heralding the age to come. John was the final one who opened the door whilst
others had paved the way.
However
in the mysterious economy of God the age to come, the arrival of God’s Kingdom
with Jesus as King over all the earth, has a now and a not yet.
I
heard this helpfully explained by using the picture of the D Day landing. As
the Allied Forces gained a beachhead, it was the beginning of the end and yet there
was still a job of work to be done.
This
what James is picking up in his letter and the passage we heard? We wait as a patient farmer waits for his crop to appear. Remembering of course that the
farmer while he waits is not just hanging around doing nothing much of anything.
He is busy tending and nurturing the soil in which he has sown the seeds. He
will be watching the weather and a number of other things to ensure there is a
good harvest.
This
is the now and not yet of God’s sovereign reign upon earth, herlading the time that
the Book of Revelation talks about when heaven and earth are at last united,
when sorry and sighing are no more, when death is ultimately defeated. A time when everyone will be raised from
death and judged, in particular those who have been in position of leadership
and authority.
Our
task as God’s people is to emulate the work of John the Baptist, although you
do not need to eat bugs and wear camel clothes.
We
are heralds of the coming King and the Kingdom. Not just by way of remembering his coming as a
baby but remembering why God came wrapped in human form.
The
Child in the Crib became the Christ on the Cross and we would do well if all
our Nativity scenes had the shadow of the cross falling over them.
People
generally like babies and they are okay with baby Jesus, meek and mild and not
crying at all, perfect in every aspect.
They may even have a model of baby Jesus in their homes and certainly he will appear in this way in most churches.
Then
comes the New Year, away it all goes without too much thought about what Jesus
did when he grew up.
Christmass
is a time for families we say – and to celebrate family life is important.
Yet
this baby Jesus grown up to manhood said, ‘unless you hate your mother and
father and your brother and sister you cannot be my disciple.’
What
ever happened to baby Jesus as he grew up to make him say such outrageous
things?
Jesus
came and ushered in God’s Kingdom and offered a different way of ordering our
affairs.
The
old way was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That way however as
someone once said, we would all end up toothless and blind.
Jesus
asks us to take the more difficult path of turning the other cheek.
Jesus
was able to respond to John’s question by pointing out the fruit of his
ministry, the deaf hearing, lame walking and the blind seeing.
Back
to our farmer again...
Question
– did you sow spring barley in this field?
Answer - yes, you can see the
spring barley growing.
Question
– are the people of God at St Anne’s Brown Edge living out the Gospel and demonstrating
that God’s Kingdom has come upon earth and that his will is being done in Brown
Edge as in heaven?
Answer?
The
first of January in 2017 in on Sunday.
Can
I challenge as part of your Act of Worship that morning to make a
collective New Year’s Resolution?
What
that might be is up for you to decide.
However
having spent some time with you in the past year here is my suggestion based
around Prayer and Scripture.
I
know that you have an Ecumenical Prayer Group that meets regularly. Could you
add to this and resolve to become people of prayer? Will you dedicate time to
prayer, mornings of prayer, days of prayer, 24 hours of prayer and prayer
walking around Brown Edge? Praying like the persistent widow not because God is
deaf to your cries but that he may know the earnestness of your heart.
Again,
I know you have a Coffee Morning where the Scriptures are discussed, but could
you widen and deepen this to involve everyone. In
particular during this Liturgical Year A to
get copies of Tom Wright’s ‘Matthew for Everyone’ by way of a common study
guide. Will you be a people of God who study, reflect and ponder on the
Scriptures, both individually and corporately that you may find what it is God
is asking of you at this time as the People of God in Brown Edge?
Alternatively,
you could simply resolve to do nothing, to make no changes, to keep things as
they always have been, perhaps as you like them.
However,
let me say this, that farmers know that if they keep trying to do the same
thing and putting in the same crops into the same field the harvest is going to
gradually wither away. That is why what is happening at St Anne’s School on
Sunday afternoons with ‘Christmass Unwrapped’ is so very important,
endeavouring under God to grow a new and different harvest.
Joshua
put this choice before the Israelites;
But
if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this
day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the
Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as
for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
If
you, as the People of God in Brown Edge chose to serve the Lord and resolve to
know God better and to make God better known then I will pledge my whole
hearted support to you and offer ever assistance as I am able.
The
choice is yours.
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
December 2016 began with my being part of the Christmass Tree Festival at St Mary’s,
Stafford. With over 80 trees and a steady flow of people it provided a unique
opportunity to raise the profile of FCN in the County. St Mary’s is a large and
impressive church set in the heart of the town. As people were passing through
I heard numerous comments not only about the trees but the beauty of the
building. The Christian Enquiry Agency have recently produced a lovely postcard
‘What Do Christians Believe’ that outlines something about the Christian faith
and with an invitation to send the card back to CEA for further
information. The are really excellent
and suitable for any church that has visitors because of its beauty or
architectural merit. 
‘Faith
Pictures’ with St Peter’s Rickerscote
