Introduction
Today we mark a turning point in the Christian year. Today’s celebration marks the ending of the Christmas season and the beginning of our looking towards the keeping of Lent, the marking of Holy Week and the celebration of Easter. Today is the celebration of the presentation of Christ in the Temple, a celebration also known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Candlemass.
Exposition
So what is it that we celebrate today?
In the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament we are told that a Jewish woman who has given birth to a male child should remain separate from her everyday life for forty days after the child’s birth. After the forty days are over she is to come to the temple and make an offering to God before resuming her normal life. For those who can afford it the offering is to be a pigeon and a lamb, but for poorer people two pigeons will suffice. In our Gospel reading today we hear of how Joseph brings Mary to the temple to make that offering forty days after the birth of Jesus. We can imagine the couple nervously entering the great temple in Jerusalem; Joseph watching carefully over Mary as she carries her baby in her arms, just another young couple coming to fulfil the laws demands.
To the temple officials it would have been just another routine moment. And yet this was a moment which had been anticipated for generations. The child that Mary carried in her arms was not just another child but the long awaited Messiah whose coming had been predicted by the prophets. More than that, in this child the God to whom this temple complex was dedicated had come in flesh amongst his people. Isaiah had spoken of a child who would be Emmanuel, God-with-us, and now in Mary’s arms that God-with-us had come at last to his temple.
As I’ve said, it was a moment which had been long anticipated. When the temple had first been built, at the time of its dedication, God had come in power and glory and filled the temple with his presence. The temple history, written in the books of Chronicles in the Old Testament, tells us “the temple was filled with the cloud of the glory of the Lord” (2 Chron 5.13).
However, before that temple was destroyed about four hundred years later the prophet Ezekiel writes of way in which God’s glory leaves the temple so that the temple becomes simply an empty shell. When the temple had been rebuilt fifty years later God’s glory did not return to it. But prophets continued to promise that one day that glory would return. So in our Old Testament reading today Malachi states “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple”.
And when that moment came it came unobserved by those who were charged with the care and maintenance of the great house of God. Yet it did not go completely unobserved. There were in the temple a number of elderly people who spent their days in the temple offering their lives to God in prayer and worship. One of those was a man named Simeon. He was so close to God that he heard God speaking to him, and God had promised him that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. When he saw the baby Jesus he took him in his arms and praised God for him. There was a prophetess too, named Anna and she too recognized the glory of God in tiny child and spoke of him to others who were looking out for him. For those who made the time, whose eyes were open God’s glory had come among them, the words of the prophets had been fulfilled and a new era had dawned. But for most of the crowds in that Temple it was business as usual. They were too important, to busy or too distracted to recognize their God in this tiny unnoticed child.
Application
And what of us? We live in a franticly busy world where there is so much to do and so much to distract us. Even when we come into Church there are friends to talk to, meetings to arrange, and information to be exchanged. We just can’t spare the space and time to recognise that Christ is among us. Yet he is. Unnoticed and un-remarked he is present in our worship and present in our daily lives if only we will make the space and time to notice him.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Friday, January 21, 2005
Sun 23rd January Epiphany 3 AM
Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.
Isaiah 9.1-4
Psalm 27.1,4-12
1 Corinthians 1.10-18
Matthew 4.12-23
Introduction
I’m sure you will all have heard the story which tells of a motorist lost in some rural part of the country who asks directions of a local, only to be told, “If I were going there I wouldn’t start from here”. But of course the joke is that any journey that you make has to start from “here” wherever here happens to be. It might be wonderful to imagine that you were somewhere better or more convenient but imagining changes nothing. The journey begins when you set out, and the place where you are has to be the place you set out from.
Exposition
In our Gospel reading today we hear of Jesus setting out to begin his ministry. As he sets out he begins in a particular place, with a particular message and with a particular group of people with him.
1. The place were he begins his work is Galilee, the northern part of the old Promised Land. Galilee was a mixed community of Jews and Gentiles who more or less lived separate lives in separate communities. This area of the Promised Land had been the first lo loose its independence to conquerors from the north and for this reason was called Galilee of the nations. Isaiah had prophesied that this land which had been the first part of the holy land to loose its independence would also be the first part to see the liberation which God would send. So Jesus began his ministry, not in the great centre of the Jewish faith at Jerusalem but in the marginal country to the north. He starts of with the people on the edge.
So that’s the first lesson to learn from today’s readings Jesus starts off with the people on the edge – the unexpected people. And that is always the way God works. If you want to see God at work today then the place to look is at the people on the margins, the places you wouldn’t expect to see him at work. And if you experience yourself as being marginalised and shut out then know that you are in the place where God works and he may well be seeking to do some work through you.
2. Jesus begins his ministry with a particular message. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. It’s the same message we heard John the Baptist proclaiming just a few weeks ago.
What does that message mean? Well firstly, it is a message about God’s rule. What Matthew calls the kingdom of heaven and the other Gospel writers call the kingdom of God is not a geographical kingdom in the sense in which we speak of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It’s not an area of land but the rule of God exercised over people. When in the Lord’s Prayer we pray that God’s kingdom will come and ask that his will should be done we are actually asking for the same thing in two different ways, that God should rule over the people of the earth so that they think and act in the way he wants them too. So Jesus message is that the time is close at hand when the will of God will be done and people will affirm their loyalty to him.
In order to get ready for that day people need to Repent. The word ‘repent’ does not mean “feel guilty”. God does not want us to feel guilty. The word ‘repent’ means to “turn around” and stop doing the things that you shouldn’t be doing and start doing the things you should. Feeling guilty is life destroying. All too often people feel guilty about things they should not feel guilty about whilst feeling nothing at all about the things in their life that need to change. Repentance is life giving. It means taking a good long look at who you are and where you’ve gone wrong and asking God’s help to be different from this day forward.
So Jesus message is that the time is coming close when God will act decisively in human lives bringing them to acknowledge his rule; and that now is the time to get ready for that by changing your life with God’s help and seeking to think and do the things he wants you to think and do.
3. Finally Jesus sets out with a particular group of people. Matthew tells us how he calls Peter and Andrew, James and John. They don’t seem to have been particularly special people; just ordinary working men who Jesus comes across and calls. Of course later on they will do remarkable things. As Jesus tells them they will change from catching fish to catching people for God. But the reason they are able to do these marvellous things is not because there is anything intrinsically special about them but rather it is because Jesus has called them and they have responded to his call.
There is another lesson for us to learn here. You don’t have to be someone special to serve Jesus – you just have to respond to his call. Jesus calls every single one of us to follow him as his disciple. Jesus doesn’t just want us to be church goers for a couple of hours a week. He wants us to be his disciples 24hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Not giving him some of the time we can spare but all that we have and all that we are. Then he will do remarkable things with us and in us as he did in and with Peter and Andrew, James and John.
Application
Jesus started off his ministry in the marginal villages of Galilee amongst the people living on the edge. All too often the Christian Church has been primarily concerned with the people at the centre of things, the rich, the powerful and the comfortable. We need to look again at the people on the edge of our society and discern how God is working amongst them, and if we perceive ourselves as being marginalised and powerless then we need to ask how God is working amongst us.
Jesus began with a message “Turn around for God’s rule is about to begin”. We need to turn around from the things in our lives which are not right before God so that we are ready for the rule of God.
And lastly, Jesus called ordinary people to do extraordinary things and those people were able to do those things because they responded to Jesus call. Jesus calls each one of us, to do remarkable things through us so that others may come to accept his rule and know his love.
Isaiah 9.1-4
Psalm 27.1,4-12
1 Corinthians 1.10-18
Matthew 4.12-23
Introduction
I’m sure you will all have heard the story which tells of a motorist lost in some rural part of the country who asks directions of a local, only to be told, “If I were going there I wouldn’t start from here”. But of course the joke is that any journey that you make has to start from “here” wherever here happens to be. It might be wonderful to imagine that you were somewhere better or more convenient but imagining changes nothing. The journey begins when you set out, and the place where you are has to be the place you set out from.
Exposition
In our Gospel reading today we hear of Jesus setting out to begin his ministry. As he sets out he begins in a particular place, with a particular message and with a particular group of people with him.
1. The place were he begins his work is Galilee, the northern part of the old Promised Land. Galilee was a mixed community of Jews and Gentiles who more or less lived separate lives in separate communities. This area of the Promised Land had been the first lo loose its independence to conquerors from the north and for this reason was called Galilee of the nations. Isaiah had prophesied that this land which had been the first part of the holy land to loose its independence would also be the first part to see the liberation which God would send. So Jesus began his ministry, not in the great centre of the Jewish faith at Jerusalem but in the marginal country to the north. He starts of with the people on the edge.
So that’s the first lesson to learn from today’s readings Jesus starts off with the people on the edge – the unexpected people. And that is always the way God works. If you want to see God at work today then the place to look is at the people on the margins, the places you wouldn’t expect to see him at work. And if you experience yourself as being marginalised and shut out then know that you are in the place where God works and he may well be seeking to do some work through you.
2. Jesus begins his ministry with a particular message. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. It’s the same message we heard John the Baptist proclaiming just a few weeks ago.
What does that message mean? Well firstly, it is a message about God’s rule. What Matthew calls the kingdom of heaven and the other Gospel writers call the kingdom of God is not a geographical kingdom in the sense in which we speak of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It’s not an area of land but the rule of God exercised over people. When in the Lord’s Prayer we pray that God’s kingdom will come and ask that his will should be done we are actually asking for the same thing in two different ways, that God should rule over the people of the earth so that they think and act in the way he wants them too. So Jesus message is that the time is close at hand when the will of God will be done and people will affirm their loyalty to him.
In order to get ready for that day people need to Repent. The word ‘repent’ does not mean “feel guilty”. God does not want us to feel guilty. The word ‘repent’ means to “turn around” and stop doing the things that you shouldn’t be doing and start doing the things you should. Feeling guilty is life destroying. All too often people feel guilty about things they should not feel guilty about whilst feeling nothing at all about the things in their life that need to change. Repentance is life giving. It means taking a good long look at who you are and where you’ve gone wrong and asking God’s help to be different from this day forward.
So Jesus message is that the time is coming close when God will act decisively in human lives bringing them to acknowledge his rule; and that now is the time to get ready for that by changing your life with God’s help and seeking to think and do the things he wants you to think and do.
3. Finally Jesus sets out with a particular group of people. Matthew tells us how he calls Peter and Andrew, James and John. They don’t seem to have been particularly special people; just ordinary working men who Jesus comes across and calls. Of course later on they will do remarkable things. As Jesus tells them they will change from catching fish to catching people for God. But the reason they are able to do these marvellous things is not because there is anything intrinsically special about them but rather it is because Jesus has called them and they have responded to his call.
There is another lesson for us to learn here. You don’t have to be someone special to serve Jesus – you just have to respond to his call. Jesus calls every single one of us to follow him as his disciple. Jesus doesn’t just want us to be church goers for a couple of hours a week. He wants us to be his disciples 24hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Not giving him some of the time we can spare but all that we have and all that we are. Then he will do remarkable things with us and in us as he did in and with Peter and Andrew, James and John.
Application
Jesus started off his ministry in the marginal villages of Galilee amongst the people living on the edge. All too often the Christian Church has been primarily concerned with the people at the centre of things, the rich, the powerful and the comfortable. We need to look again at the people on the edge of our society and discern how God is working amongst them, and if we perceive ourselves as being marginalised and powerless then we need to ask how God is working amongst us.
Jesus began with a message “Turn around for God’s rule is about to begin”. We need to turn around from the things in our lives which are not right before God so that we are ready for the rule of God.
And lastly, Jesus called ordinary people to do extraordinary things and those people were able to do those things because they responded to Jesus call. Jesus calls each one of us, to do remarkable things through us so that others may come to accept his rule and know his love.
Friday, January 14, 2005
16-01-2005
Ardleigh Green Baptist Church
Psalm 96
Ezekiel 2.1-3.4
Galatians 1.11-24
The prophet Ezekiel lived at time when, for his people, the world must have seemed to be falling apart. Ezekiel was born somewhere around the year 632 BC. His family were hereditary priests in the great temple which had been built by Solomon in Jerusalem and from his early years Ezekiel would have been trained to take on the family responsibilities. When he was about twenty six years old the land of which he was a part lost its political independence and came under the rule of the regional superpower of that time, the land of Babylon and in the year 597 BC about ten thousand of the leading citizens of Jerusalem were deported to Babylon to live out their lives in exile. The idea was to remove the people who gave the nation its unique identity so that it would be absorbed into the single identity of the empire and give up any ideas of independence and rebellion.
Ezekiel seems to have been amongst the 10,000 who were deported. As his book opens we find him in Babylon, beside the river Chebar. The book opens with a vision of the power and majesty of God who then goes on to call Ezekiel to a new ministry. He has been trained to be a priest but God calls him to the ministry of a Prophet – someone who will proclaim God’s message to his people. It will not be an easy task for Ezekiel to undertake. The people to whom he is sent will be stubborn and defiant. They will not listen to the words Ezekiel proclaims to them. Nevertheless, says God, Ezekiel is be persistent in his proclaiming of what God has to say. “Tell them what I say”, says God, “whether they choose to listen or not”.
Ezekiel then has a vision of a scroll from God. It is not a very cheerful book, on both sides a written “lamentations, groanings and woes”. The scroll seems to represent the message from God that Ezekiel is given to deliver to the people and Ezekiel is told to eat it. By eating the scroll Ezekiel takes the message from God into himself. The message becomes a part of who he is. And despite the discouraging nature of the contents of the scroll Ezekiel finds that it tastes “as sweet as honey”.
For the next twenty years and more, Ezekiel carries out his prophetic ministry amongst the exiles. For much of that time the message that he proclaims is one of unremitting condemnation. It is truly a message of “lamentations, groanings and woes”. Whilst the people seemed to believe that “it would all come out right in the end” Ezekiel amongst the exiles proclaims the same message that Jeremiah is proclaiming at the same time in Jerusalem. The message that there is worse to come; the city will fall and it’s temple be laid waste. This will happen, says Ezekiel, because the people have failed to listen to God and act according to his will.
These messages and visions of judgement fill almost the whole of the first half of Ezekiel’s book. Then in Chapter 25 there is a change. A first the message continues to be one of judgement but now it is aimed, not at the people of Judah but at the nations around them. Seven nations which seem to have taken special delight in Judah’s destruction are themselves warned that is not just Judah that God will judge but them too.
And then, in the final part of the book of Ezekiel we get a different message. This is a message, not of judgement, but of hope and restoration. God’s judgement is not for the destruction of his people but for there cleansing and one that has been accomplished there will renewal and restoration. In this part of the book we have the well known vision of the valley of dry bones. The message is clear – the situation may appear to be hopeless but God’s power can restore even when all hope seems lost.
In these chapters, chapters 33 to 48, Ezekiel tells of God’s concerns in two areas. The first is the area of leadership. Up until now the nation has been lead by people who have put their own interests first but now, God says, he raise up new rulers who will rule after God’s heart. They will take care of the people and nurture them. Indeed, God says, he himself will be the shepherd of his people to seek out the lost, bind up the wounded and care for them. Christians have seen in this promise a prophecy of the coming of Christ.
Ezekiel’s second great concern towards the end of his book is for worship. In the early part of his book Ezekiel sees God’s glory abandon the temple and leave it an empty shell. In the latter part of the book Ezekiel foresees the rebuilding of the temple and the renewal of its worship.
Towards the end of the book of Ezekiel comes one of my favourite passages in the Bible. In a vision Ezekiel stands near the entrance of the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and sees a stream of water flowing from it. As the stream flows away it becomes broader and deeper. Wherever the water flows it brings life and healing. On its banks grow trees whose fruit is good for food and whose leaves bring healing. Eventually the stream, now a broad river, empties itself into the stagnant waters of the Dead Sea. Those waters are transformed, made fresh and filled with life. It is a vision of the power of God to transform a stagnant and dying world and bring new life and hope.
The Book of Ezekiel is one of the more difficult books of the Bible but it is a book which is of great value to us. There are lessons for us to learn from Ezekiel’s life and we can prophet by them.
Firstly for example, Ezekiel was a man who had his life planned out. He was to be a priest in the temple. But God had a different plan for him. We need to be careful not to ask God to bless our plans but rather to seek to do what he wills, which may be very different from anything we would plan for ourselves.
Secondly, Ezekiel reminds us of the need to stubborn and hard-headed in pursuing God’s will. The message we have to proclaim will probably not be a popular one. We must proclaim it all the same.
Finally, Ezekiel speaks to us of the hope and life the God’s message means for stagnant and dying world.
Ardleigh Green Baptist Church
Psalm 96
Ezekiel 2.1-3.4
Galatians 1.11-24
The prophet Ezekiel lived at time when, for his people, the world must have seemed to be falling apart. Ezekiel was born somewhere around the year 632 BC. His family were hereditary priests in the great temple which had been built by Solomon in Jerusalem and from his early years Ezekiel would have been trained to take on the family responsibilities. When he was about twenty six years old the land of which he was a part lost its political independence and came under the rule of the regional superpower of that time, the land of Babylon and in the year 597 BC about ten thousand of the leading citizens of Jerusalem were deported to Babylon to live out their lives in exile. The idea was to remove the people who gave the nation its unique identity so that it would be absorbed into the single identity of the empire and give up any ideas of independence and rebellion.
Ezekiel seems to have been amongst the 10,000 who were deported. As his book opens we find him in Babylon, beside the river Chebar. The book opens with a vision of the power and majesty of God who then goes on to call Ezekiel to a new ministry. He has been trained to be a priest but God calls him to the ministry of a Prophet – someone who will proclaim God’s message to his people. It will not be an easy task for Ezekiel to undertake. The people to whom he is sent will be stubborn and defiant. They will not listen to the words Ezekiel proclaims to them. Nevertheless, says God, Ezekiel is be persistent in his proclaiming of what God has to say. “Tell them what I say”, says God, “whether they choose to listen or not”.
Ezekiel then has a vision of a scroll from God. It is not a very cheerful book, on both sides a written “lamentations, groanings and woes”. The scroll seems to represent the message from God that Ezekiel is given to deliver to the people and Ezekiel is told to eat it. By eating the scroll Ezekiel takes the message from God into himself. The message becomes a part of who he is. And despite the discouraging nature of the contents of the scroll Ezekiel finds that it tastes “as sweet as honey”.
For the next twenty years and more, Ezekiel carries out his prophetic ministry amongst the exiles. For much of that time the message that he proclaims is one of unremitting condemnation. It is truly a message of “lamentations, groanings and woes”. Whilst the people seemed to believe that “it would all come out right in the end” Ezekiel amongst the exiles proclaims the same message that Jeremiah is proclaiming at the same time in Jerusalem. The message that there is worse to come; the city will fall and it’s temple be laid waste. This will happen, says Ezekiel, because the people have failed to listen to God and act according to his will.
These messages and visions of judgement fill almost the whole of the first half of Ezekiel’s book. Then in Chapter 25 there is a change. A first the message continues to be one of judgement but now it is aimed, not at the people of Judah but at the nations around them. Seven nations which seem to have taken special delight in Judah’s destruction are themselves warned that is not just Judah that God will judge but them too.
And then, in the final part of the book of Ezekiel we get a different message. This is a message, not of judgement, but of hope and restoration. God’s judgement is not for the destruction of his people but for there cleansing and one that has been accomplished there will renewal and restoration. In this part of the book we have the well known vision of the valley of dry bones. The message is clear – the situation may appear to be hopeless but God’s power can restore even when all hope seems lost.
In these chapters, chapters 33 to 48, Ezekiel tells of God’s concerns in two areas. The first is the area of leadership. Up until now the nation has been lead by people who have put their own interests first but now, God says, he raise up new rulers who will rule after God’s heart. They will take care of the people and nurture them. Indeed, God says, he himself will be the shepherd of his people to seek out the lost, bind up the wounded and care for them. Christians have seen in this promise a prophecy of the coming of Christ.
Ezekiel’s second great concern towards the end of his book is for worship. In the early part of his book Ezekiel sees God’s glory abandon the temple and leave it an empty shell. In the latter part of the book Ezekiel foresees the rebuilding of the temple and the renewal of its worship.
Towards the end of the book of Ezekiel comes one of my favourite passages in the Bible. In a vision Ezekiel stands near the entrance of the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and sees a stream of water flowing from it. As the stream flows away it becomes broader and deeper. Wherever the water flows it brings life and healing. On its banks grow trees whose fruit is good for food and whose leaves bring healing. Eventually the stream, now a broad river, empties itself into the stagnant waters of the Dead Sea. Those waters are transformed, made fresh and filled with life. It is a vision of the power of God to transform a stagnant and dying world and bring new life and hope.
The Book of Ezekiel is one of the more difficult books of the Bible but it is a book which is of great value to us. There are lessons for us to learn from Ezekiel’s life and we can prophet by them.
Firstly for example, Ezekiel was a man who had his life planned out. He was to be a priest in the temple. But God had a different plan for him. We need to be careful not to ask God to bless our plans but rather to seek to do what he wills, which may be very different from anything we would plan for ourselves.
Secondly, Ezekiel reminds us of the need to stubborn and hard-headed in pursuing God’s will. The message we have to proclaim will probably not be a popular one. We must proclaim it all the same.
Finally, Ezekiel speaks to us of the hope and life the God’s message means for stagnant and dying world.
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