Wednesday 28 January 2015
Sunday 25 January 2015
Epiphany 3 - On the third day
The Gospel of John stands alone when
put alongside the three synoptic gospels of Mark Matthew and Luke. The purpose
of the three synoptic, called such as they share a high proportion of stories
covering the same events and follow a similar sequence, is clear and best
conveyed in the introduction of Luke’s gospel. Chapter 1 verse 1
“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a
narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just
as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word
have delivered them to us, 3 it
seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past,
to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that
you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”
But what of John’s
gospel? For many years scholars have referred to St John’s gospel as the “book
of signs”.
The dangers of trying
to discover secret meaning in the words of scripture are of course nothing new.
Dan Brown may well have been very clever in catching the imagination and
quenching the thirst of those who believe in conspiracy theories when it comes
to the church and the figure of Jesus Christ but he is not alone. There are of
course many who dedicate their lives trying to look deeper in to the meaning of
words and search out secret rhythms and codes from what is actually written.
But with that said,
and if you like having noted the danger of such a reading of scripture, there
seems to be more justification in doing so with the gospel of John than with
the other gospel writers who do indeed have a deeper theology to convey in the
way in which they arrange the details that they find, or indeed have seen with
their own eyes, concerning life of Jesus.
On the third Sunday of Epiphany, a
season that explores and celebrate the revelation to the world that is Jesus
Christ we read:
“On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.” Jn 2.1
We are not told who was getting
married, a detail that would certainly attract a great deal more comment from
todays journalist, but we are told that Jesus and all his disciples were there
as well. And while they are there disaster strikes. It seems the
host has run out of wine. Now how this unfolds is important. Jesus’
mother informs him and he doesn’t seem too pleased. In fact, he says
somewhat cryptically, “My hour has not yet come.” But she persists in
telling the servants to do as he commands. He then spies six stone jars,
six jars that were used for the Jewish rite of purification; big jars, each one
holding twenty to thirty gallons.
He has them filled to the brim and
then has them draw some water and take it to the master of the feast.
When it gets there it had become wine, and not just any wine, good wine!
Everyone is shocked, they know that the usual way things work is you serve the
good wine first and when everyone is a bit tipsy then you bring out the cheaper
stuff and no one is the wiser.
But here the wine Jesus supplies is
the best, the very best. And there at Cana in Galilee his glory is
manifested in this miracle.
Everything that happens in our text
is said to have happened on the third day and to be the first sign that Jesus
performs. On the third day we are introduced in John’s gospel for the
first time to the mother of our Lord. Remember John’s Christmas story
doesn’t begin with Mary and Joseph and the angel Gabriel but with the cosmic
story of the creative Word of God becoming flesh. And it is here at Cana
that we first hear of his mother.
She isn’t even named but she plays
an important role. She is the one who directs all eyes to Jesus on the
third day and then we don’t hear about her again until she appears at the foot
of the cross at the end of the Gospel. Here he tells her that his hour is
not yet come but later he will say that, “the hour has come to glorify the
Father.” And the hour he speaks of is his gruesome death on the cross –
where we find Mary.
We are told that the wedding feast
in Cana happens on the third day, and it is the third day after his crucifixion
that our Lord finds his disciples gathered in the upper room, locked away in
fear.
On the Third day he who turns water
into wine, he who has given new life to his church he himself comes into their
midst. He says, “Peace be with you!” And that is exactly what he
gives.
We gather on the third day, on the
day of our Lord’s glorious manifestation, we gather as he comes in water and
wine, as he comes in Word and Sacrament to give you peace. “Peace” he
says, “for you are forgiven. Peace, for you have been washed and fed and
embraced by God. Peace for it is finished, my hour has come, you are
mine.”
Later in the gospel John tells us
that Jesus’s speaks of his own mission in these wonderful words “ I came that you may have life and have life
abundantly” John 10.10
In this the first sign of Jesus, and
in on the third day after his crucifixion Jesus shows us what that abundant
life looks like. The water of our everyday life is transformed by his love and
presence into the wine of the Kingdom and through his death and resurrection
that promise of abundant life means that there is no limit, no best before, no
sell by date that we are so familiar with in our daily lives. For Jesus on the
Third day at the wedding at Cana and on the third day after his crucifixion
reveals to us the truth of his gift and promise that will stand for eternity –
life, life in abundance.
Tuesday 20 January 2015
Compulsory purchase order public enquiry
The long awaited Public inquiry on the west hendon regeneration has begun
"Let justice roll on like a river and righteousness like a never failing stream"
Amos 5.24
Saturday 17 January 2015
Epiphany 2 - Speak Lord you servant is listening
Our world and our culture are
changing rapidly all around us. With new communication technology and
increasing global interaction, we face a world that will be radically different
from the one in which we have lived for so long..
Of course, some see the changes, any
changes, as threatening. And so they move into a doomsday mode and adopt a
negative view. They decry any change as a change for the worse, where some
people see only problems, others see opportunities.
If that is true in individuals, I
suspect it is also true of society. And it is true of the church. Never has
there been more interest in religion and spirituality in this country than now.
The human need to be Spiritual remains even in those societies that strive to
deny the Spiritual and believe not in God but themselves. Of course, some of
that spirituality is of the weird kind, and certainly not Christian. But that
also tells us that there are opportunities to proclaim the Gospel.
The Old Testament reading for the
second Sunday of Epiphany is the story of God’s call to the young man Samuel
and his commissioning as a prophet to Israel. In many ways, this young man
Samuel represents the turning of history for Israel.
The setting of this story is 200
years after the people of Israel leave the slavery of Egypt, travel through the
wilderness and enter the long promised land flowing with milk and honey.
They enter the land of Canaan and as
they settle and adapt to this new life, the old ways are forgotten, the old
lessons of dependency on God become lost and new ways of living seem at odds
with all that went before.
The priests continued to worship and
maintain the sanctuaries throughout the land. They tried to keep the spiritual
vitality alive. But the people could see little advantage in serving God. They
became preoccupied with their own interests and their commitment to God grew
dim.
And so gradually they began to
forget who they were as God’s chosen people and what their mission was in the
world. The new generation of children that were growing up had finally
abandoned God for pursuit of their own pleasure. The Book of Judges ends with
one of the most chilling verses in the Bible. "Everyone did as they wanted
to do."
It is against that background that
the young man Samuel enters Israel’s history
The first chapters of 1 Samuel tell
us of the miraculous birth of Samuel. God heard and answered Hannah’s prayer.
As soon as we hear of the birth of this child, we know that there is hope for
Israel. We know that there is indeed a future and possibility simply because
God has brought it about. But change does not always come easily, and we do not
yet know the shape of that future.
And so the stage is set for the text
in chapter three that we have heard this morning.
There are three characters in the
story: the old priest Eli, the young man Samuel, and God. Too often we focus on
Samuel and forget about Eli. But if we listen carefully to the story, we
realize that Eli has a significant role in the story. It will take all three of
these figures in the story for Israel to have a future.
Eli by this time was an old man,
nearly blind. He was priest at the sanctuary at Shiloh, and likely had been all
his life. In the previous chapter (2), we are told that Eli’s two sons were
worthless fellows who despised the things of God. They had violated the very
sanctuary of God
Eli represents Israel and the path
that she has taken in allowing the things of God to grow dim, like his eyesight.
Eli represents the old ways that Israel had been following now for 200 years,
paths that have led to spiritual blindness and a deafness to the voice of God.
Yet there is a glimmer of hope here.
We are also told in verse 3 that "the lamp of God had not yet gone out,
and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God
was." It is no accident that this story takes place at night. The darkness
represents the same thing that Eli’s blindness represents: the lack of
spiritual vision and the failure to be God’s people.
The lamp of God and the ark both
symbolized the presence of God in the sanctuary. In this story they represent
the presence of God in the darkness into which Israel’s spiritual blindness has
led them. In the midst of the darkness of failing vision the flame of God’s
presence is still alive.
And in the darkness there is Samuel,
the miracle child! The child born to a barren woman! In the darkness lies the
future, just waiting for God’s presence to fan it into a new flame!
We must be careful here that we do
not romanticize Samuel and make him the hero here. The story is not about
Samuel. But he is the instrument of God's work.
We all know the story of God's call
to Samuel. God called to him. He heard God’s voice, but did not understand. He
was only a boy and had not yet learned to distinguish the voice of God from all
the other voices in his life.
He went and asked Eli if he had
called. Eli told him to go back to bed. Twice more this happened. Finally, the
third time Eli began to understand what was happening. He explained what Samuel
should do and how he should respond.
The fourth time Samuel responded to
God's call, and was given the prophetic message from God. It was a message
about change, about the ending of the old ways of doing things in Israel.
Although Eli can be seen as the
villain in the story the truth is that he is important and was there to guide
Samuel in the right direction. Even though the old ways were dying, they still
had a role in guiding the new generation into their calling as God’s people. Eli
enables the young Samuel to be one who will bring change so desperately need.
Eli may not be a hero, but his role
was to facilitate and enable the change that God was bringing. He was the
transition figure between the past and the future, the cutting edge over which
the old became new.
And what of Samuel? Does he become
the hero? Yes but if we look later at Samuel, even after being the prophet of
God for many years, he had sons of his own. And his sons were worthless
fellows, just like the sons of Eli. Eventually, Samuel himself came to the
position of Eli, and faced the judgment of God on his own family and his
heritage!
Samuel filled the same role as Eli,
as he presided over yet another change in Israel’s history. Samuel was
commissioned by God to appoint the iftt Kings of Israel first Saul and then
David, an act that would bring his own leadership of Israel to an end.
So what does this mean for us?
I think that perhaps we need to
realize that some things are ending. I’m not saying we have to see the church
in the metaphor of a blind old man who is ready to die. But we do have to
recognize that what has been will not be again. The stability and power of our
Faith is not in all the trappings of our religion, but in the living God in our
midst. We can easily disrupt the new work of God in the world if we try only to
hang onto what has always been. Not everything needs to change, or should. But
then, not everything can remain the same.
Certainly there is change in the
wind. Pope Francis is challenging the Roman Catholic Church to look afresh at
some of its deepest held assumptions and practices.
The Church of England is also undergoing
change with the long awaited decision to
allow women not just to be priests but Bishops as well
In our Diocese we await the news in few
months time of who will be our new bishop of Edmonton, taking over from bishop
Peter after 15 years as our Area Bishop
And there is change here too at St
Matthias and within the communities of Colindale where we see the evidence of
that change all around us.
We need to listen to God in these
times of change and for some of us to be like Eli, to ensure that the voice of
the future is heard and the Word of God is honoured. For all of us we need to
be ready to respond to God when he calls: "Speak, Lord, for your
servant is listening."
Saturday 10 January 2015
The Baptism of Christ - You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased
Can you imagine what
it would be like to hear the voice of God saying, "I am so very pleased
with you"?
“Congratulations”
The banner with
bright coloured letters ran up the Vicarage stair case complete with balloons
for the home coming of baby Jesse on Wednesday night, hot on the heals of the
celebration of the Magi’s visit to the stable in Bethlehem and blessing our home and the churches 20+C+M+B15
Of course we had been
waiting, anticipating this moment, indeed praying for him to be well enough and
strong enough to be allowed out of hospital and start to live as part of his
family. Thank you for all your prayers for Jesse and Jodie these past 6 weeks,
this baby has been prayed for in Roman Catholic, Coptic, Anglican and
Pentecostal churches he is truly blessed.
“You are my son the
beloved, with you I am well pleased” – these are the words of God not just for
his only begotten son Jesus but for the whole world to hear and to share in and
what could be more wonderful than to hear our heavenly father tell us this?
The joy that came
with this small bundle of humanity wrapped in a blue blanket knitted for him by
Angie and in a car seat that cost as much in family arguments as it did in
terms of cash! was soon followed with the needs of looking after a small baby,
the endless cycle of washing and feeding and all that happens in between, but
that joy is still with us and in time Jesse will come to understand its full
extent in his own life. It is the kind of joy that one gets from looking upon a
baby be it ours of that of another that when felt never leaves us.
The first time I saw Jesse, one day old in intensive care wrapped in bubble wrap
the first prayer I
said for him
the first time I held
him
the first time I fed
him
these are moments
that cannot be forgotten, will never be forgotten will stay with me for the
rest of my life and this is true of our baptism and the baptism on our lord
that we remember and celebrate this morning
Baptism is a powerful
sign of Gods love for us, those of us who were baptised as infants may not have
a direct memory of the event, of the love being expressed and poured out in
that simple ceremony but as we grow it is our hope and faith that the words of
God the Father to his Son will be equally true of each one of us his sons and
daughters.
Our baptism in like a
home coming for through the waters of baptism we are granted entry in to the
church and the promise of life eternal. In the waters of baptism we are born
again in to a new family, the family of Christian people throughout the ages, and the world, yes it really is a homecoming.
In the words of God
“You are my child the beloved, with you I am well pleased” we are given the
assurance from
...The One who
rescued us from death and destruction out of grace simply because He loves us.
...The One who chose
you and revealed Himself to you when you were yet in sin, ungodly, without hope.
...The One who turned
you from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the kingdom of God, from death to everlasting life.
...The One who
granted you forgiveness of all your sins, who absolved you of condemnation, who
breathed into you life that would never end, who assured you He would never
leave you nor forsake you, who by His Spirit enabled you to call Him,
"Abba, Father!"
What are we to make
of that timeless voice, the voice from heaven saying "This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well-pleased
What do we make of it
this morning as we sit here in church and take moment to listen, to remember,
to assure ourselves that we have been chosen and are loved because we, like the
one on whom we attempt to model our lives, are a beloved child of God in whom
God is well pleased?
When you stop to
ponder this in your heart, the timing of the Father's words to His Son was
incredible. This happened on the eve of Jesus' public ministry! Jesus was about
thirty years old. He came to the Jordan where His cousin John was baptising.
10And just as he was coming up out of the
water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on
him. 11And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are
my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ 12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness”
Up to this point, Jesus
hadn't performed a single miracle.
No sign had been performed
by Him, or word spoken by him yet the Father himself said He was well-pleased with His Son.
Jesus hadn't successfully
resisted the devil; yet the Father opened the heavens and said, "This is
My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased."
Before Jesus had begun any
work of his Father he receives God’s blessing and love.
And this is true for each
one of us when we were born, before we had done anything, even before we had
opened our mouth to draw our first breath we are loved. This is true for Jesse
my first Grandson, it is true of Jesus at his baptism and it is true for each
one of us here and throughout the world.
What does this tell us? It
tells me that what pleases God more than anything else is our intimate
relationship with Him, our total submission to His Word, His purpose, His
timing.
Imagine the freedom you
would experience if you knew that you were already — right now and today
— pleasing to God!
Would you face the
challenges before you differently?
Would you enjoy your life a
little more and live your life abundantly?
And so the yearning strong
With which the soul will long
Shall far out pass the power of
human telling;
For none can guess its grace
Till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes his
dwelling.
‘Come Down O Love Divine’
- Bianco da Siena, d.1434.
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