Saint Swithun's Blog

(1 Samuel 3.1-20; Psalm 139.1-5,12-18; REvelation 5.1-10; John 1.43-51)

Last year I went on a mission to Bulgaria with the Baptist Church and I learnt a lot of lessons; this was one of them.  Honesty – the pastor of the Baptist church and overall leader of our mission to Razgrad had delegated out responsibilities to the team; we all had our job to do.

I was responsible for drama. I am very keen on drama and have some strong opinions!  The drama was to be in the street and the first sketch was about Jesus’ healing our destructive behaviours  such as drunkenness, anger and lust.  A mixture of poverty and alcohol was ruining family life and relationships in the village and we were there to bring hope.  I wanted to make the drama edgy and shocking; if we were going to touch these people we had to show that we understood the violence and vulnerability of their lives.  This frightened the cast and they were so uncomfortable and embarrassed that they did not turn up for the rehearsal. This was not a good start!

Anyway we are all there for the evening’s street evangelism and the drama is unrehearsed; I was going to abandon it; abdicate my responsibilities and walk away.  Honesty then quietly says to me: Jane, you are responsible for drama, you have authority to do whatever it takes to make sure it works and is ready in 10 minutes!

So I got the cast together, explained exactly what I wanted and asked the young woman taking the role of the battered wife if I could take her role and demonstrate what I meant. She was fine about this and more than a bit relieved.  The drama worked and we were ok for the rest of the mission.

There are a number of lessons to learn from this: firstly Honesty’s leadership: you are responsible, accountable and you have the power to change this situation. Get on with it.  Secondly, leadership by demonstration or example far more inspiring than direction!  And probably most important of all: we are chosen to do stuff for God because we are the people to do it.  So let’s meet the people of our readings.

When Samuel hears the voice of God, he refers to Eli.  Eli who is a poor example of a priest, who has stopped expecting to hear the voice of God and has not instilled any sense of expectation in the child Samuel.  1 Samuel 3 1Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

Eli does not or will not entertain the possibility that this is God speaking. Has Eli just forgotten what it is like to hear God speaking?  But eventually he gets it and says to Samuel:  God is speaking to you, you must take responsibility and bear the consequences.

Little do either of them know what is to come.  This young man will have to prophesy the end of Eli’s priestly line: his failure to control his sons, and lack of concern and respect for the house of God have cost him his position and their inheritance.

Samuel is the only person who can do this;  he is the only one who is listening.

In the reading from Revelation, the prophet is lamenting that no one is worthy to open the scroll and reveal the words of wisdom.  But Jesus is worthy:

Revelation 5 5Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.’

6 Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne.

Jesus was chosen to perform a great task for the world and God’s children.  God knew that he could do it.  And God knew what it would cost him: the Lamb who was slaughtered.

Finally we come to Nathanael.

John 1 47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’

Jesus could see right through to the heart of Nathanael – his lack of guile, his honest character.  They have a little bit of banter about prophecies, and Nathanael is a little embarrassed as we all are when someone tells us to our face about our good character.  O, surely not me, Lord!

Jesus says to Nathanael –

51And he (Jesus) said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

We hear very little about Nathanael in the New Testament, in fact we only meet him again towards the end of John’s gospel.

But we remember another character who saw heaven open and angels descending and ascending on a great ladder.  Of course it was Jacob; the story is found in Genesis 28.10-14.  God appears to Jacob and tells him that he will be the father of many and will live in the land on which he is lying. 

Nathanael appears again by the Sea of Tiberius and witnesses the risen Christ

John 21.2 Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin,Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.

Nathanael experiences the miraculous catch of fish and then has breakfast with the resurrected Jesus on the shore.  He may even have been at Cana when Jesus turns the water into wine.  We just don’t know.

But the point is this: Samuel, Nathanael, Jacob, Jesus were people who all listened to the voice of God and took action.  That action changed the direction of the world to the purposes of God.

You and I can listen or we can stop listening, like Eli.  We can fill up our lives with noise and busyness and nonsense so that we do not have time to hear God’s voice.

But just because we are not listening will not stop him knowing us. And in knowing us, knowing what we are capable of.

We are utterly transparent to God:

Psalm 139 1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.

God sees us completely, he knows us intimately, he cares for us totally and he understands us.  There is nothing that is hidden from God.

The great sadness will be that we come to the end of our lives and miss the work that he has for us to do. This will be a great sadness for ourselves, four our community, for our church.  Because it is our work and if we do not do it, it will not be done.

Let’s pray the words of Psalm 95:

6 O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand. 

O that today you would listen to his voice! Amen

(Isaiah 60.1-6; Ephesians 3.1-12; Psalm 72.12-15; Matthew 2.1-12)

I don’t know about you but the I cry quite a lot.  I am not talking about the bitter tears of self-pity and remorse but the tears that well up in the presence of beauty, truth and glory.  You know those moments when you are filled with pride at a child’s achievement; when you watch someone performing an act of great generosity or courage; when you hear sublime music or poetry or look at a sunset  or full moon; when you see the face of Christ in another person or hear his voice in what we say or another says.  At the bottom of this experience is truth.  When human beings come into the presence of true, beautiful, glorious, authentic humanity we are often overwhelmed and this fills us up and spills over into tears. Into our ordinary lives a hint of the divine sometimes breaks in and touches us at a deep level.

The Magi enter an ordinary home in Bethlehem and are overwhelmed with joy.  Note that Mary and Joseph and the Christ child are not overwhelmed with awe and wonder at their fancy guests – the Magi are overwhelmed with joy – and I’ll be betting that there were a few tears from these important and educated people.

And I am also betting that their feelings were enhanced because their previous encounter had been so disappointing.  Herod was a big let-down: surely he can’t be the reason or agent for their long journey?  Often we are moved to tears when disappointment is followed by the great discovery that there is still joy and goodness and truth in the world.

So into the ordinariness of the home of Jesus the Christ child bursts this extraordinary group of people.  Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar, probably a group of Persian priests and astrologers, have made an extraordinary journey following an extraordinary wild star that should not be there, all the way from their eastern homes.  And they bring their extraordinary gifts: Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

At every level they are completely out of place in the ordinary home of Mary and Joseph – and yet they are not – because there is a deeper mystery happening.

Epiphany means revelation.  These few weeks reveal the mystery of God made man through the visit of the Magi, Jesus’s Baptism and the Wedding Feast at Cana, where the water is changed into wine: all with their own meaning and importance in this season.

But today we have the strange gifts and the exotic travelers.  Of course that is one of the attributes that all the gifts have in common: they are exotic, out of place in an ordinary setting.  And they are all items of beauty:  Gold is  beautiful to look at; Frankincense is  beautiful to smell; Myrrh is beautiful to feel. And all are costly.

All of them are rich in meaning, chosen very carefully to honour this important event. There is prophecy and recognition of something unique and world changing; there is contrast – glory has come into the world to show up its darkness and corruption; and a glimpse of heaven in the ordinary and commonplace.

Herod provides us with a great illustration of the contrast between the gifts and the world into which Jesus and the Magi have come.

Firstly there is Gold: a sign of holiness, royalty, purity and abundance.  Jesus sent into the world to bring true riches: generosity of spirit, miracles of transformation.  The true riches of the kingdom are in contrast with the greed and exploitation and imbalance of the world’s resources.

Secondly there is Frankincense: the fragrance of prayer and worship.  Jesus sent into the world to point us to the true God, the one worthy of our praise and worship.  The true God stands against the idols of the world and hypocrisy.

Thirdly there is Myrrh: the cooling balm of healing and anointing.  Jesus sent in to the world to heal and comfort.  The true expression of compassionate and caring humanity is distinguished from the oppression and exploitation of people for individual wealth and status.

So what do the Magi teach us this morning?

We as a church are called to be out of place in the world – extraordinary in the ordinary and commonplace – countercultural as that great evangelist, John Stott called us.

So what should we reveal? What gifts do we bring to a dark and struggling world.

Gold?  We strive for purity of motive and generosity of spirit.  The church is no place to extort money from people for individual enhancement.  We should be people without guile, straightforward and transparent; people who can be trusted amidst all the spin.

Frankincense?  We worship the one true God in spirit and truth. The church is not place for religiosity that separates people from God.  Our worship is beautiful because Jesus is here in the midst of us, covering our imperfections and forgiving our clumsiness.  We can teach people to pray because we are people of prayer.

Myrrh? We bring healing and safety and hope to a sick and slightly mad world. The church is no place for rigid dogma that divides and excludes those who do not  pass the entrance test.  We embrace all people wherever they are on their journey, however small or big their faith and whatever they have done or not done in their lives.  All are human beings, made in the image of God.  All are afforded dignity and honour in this place.

In this way we bring into the ordinary and commonplace the exotic, costly and beautiful gifts of the Wise travellers,

And when people come into this place or talk with us about our faith they will be overwhelmed with joy, for the right reasons, because we are true, authentic, beautiful and glorious people of the Christ child.  Amen

(John 1.1-18; 1 John 2.18-21)

Have you read Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan?  If you haven’t, put it on your list of books to read this year. Christian on his way to the Celestial City is beset challenges and temptations – well-meaning people try to divert him from his way, others tempt him with worldy wisdom, others with despair and self-doubt.  Does this sound all too familiar?  Christian reminds us that the journey is ours: yours and mine.  We have met and will meet people on the way who are more or less helpful, but at the end of the day it is our choices, our decisions and our relationship with God that bring us through.

Old year’s night happens every year, and it is more or less meaningful depending on where we are on our journey this year.

Old year’s night is dark – not the darkest night of the year but dark enough – and especially at the moment when there is little moon to brighten the gloom.

Look around the church tonight and see the new paint that has been put there by our Community Payback team. They are rightly proud of the difference that they have made, brightening up the gloomy grey cracked walls that they started with; our walls have been on a journey!

In the reading from 1 John, our first reading this evening, the writer warns the early church of the antichrist.  Doesn’t this term create all sorts of images in our minds?  But in fact it means what it says – Anti Christ.  There are many who would divert us from the path of following Jesus Christ – who are anti Christ.

And this year there will have been many opportunities for us to stray from the King’s Highway and miss the Wicket Gate of the Pilgrim’ Progress.

And in reflecting, we remember the grace of God with great joy because in following Jesus Christ we actually travel with a person who knows our weakness; someone not in a hurry; someone who will walk at our pace and go around again if necessary.

The truly awesome thing is that God came down from heaven to live our lives, in order to say: I know what it is like, not because I observe you from my celestial home, but because I walked amongst you.

And how does God walk: well full of grace and truth, we read in John’s gospel (John 1.14)

The law came through Moses but the glory of the Son comes through grace and truth.  The law is never going to work for human beings – God knew that.  To know the law is to know how to break the law.  The human brain is a wonderful organ and very straight forward.  If you say to the brain – do not do this – the brain has a way of not hearing the “do not” and the seed is sown for the person to do the very thing they are told not to do.  If you do not believe me you have forgotten what it is like to be a toddler or to parent one!

Christ came to bring us light in the darkness.  This means that we see – maybe not clearly at first – but as the light increases in our lives, the darkness is dispelled and a new life dawns in us.

And that life is the glory of God – full of grace and truth; it is so much more powerful than adherence to laws and rules.

Well of course, you say, that is not my life – I am far from being full of grace and truth all of the time.  Of course you are and so am I – but you have your moments and so do I.

And the glory of following the Son of God is that we have the opportunity to stop, reflect, repent and start again – over and over again.

This Watch night service is an opportunity in the darkness of the old year to reflect and recommit.

You may be sitting in church tonight with faith as huge as the ocean – or you may have faith as tiny as a grain of sand.  You may be brimming with optimism or struggling with despair.  You may be feeling pleased with yourself or very disappointed.

You may have to live or work with people who dis your beliefs or try to lead you astray; your faith maybe so tiny that you cannot bear to speak of it to anyone.

Who cares?  You are here tonight!

This is a night to reflect on what has gone by.  We cannot change it,  but we can celebrate the good, and we can learn from the not so good.  We can pat ourselves on the back for jobs completed and highlight the incomplete.

And in all this there is no judgement, no condemnation.  God simply asks us to be honest and transparent – he knows our heart – there is no hiding from him!

At the turning of the year, God asks us to come to him again, and rededicate our lives again – with as much or as little enthusiasm or optimism as we have.

He knows we will stumble, he knows we will listen to the wrong voices and make unhelpful choices.

He knows that because he lived amongst us: fully human and fully God.

Let’s remind ourselves that Mary could have said no; the shepherds could have ignored the angels; the Magi could have ignored the star.  God would have understood and still have worked his purpose out; he would just have had to come at it a different way.

All God asks us to do is allow his Word to dwell in us – full of grace and truth – mindful of others, with the best intentions and honest with him and each other.

Anything else is to stay in the darkness and if you wanted that you would not be here with your faith as big as an ocean or as small as a grain of sand.

Now that is something we can all celebrate! Amen