1st March, 2009: Year B- Lent 1

Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

There is a wonderful children's picture book by Maurice Sendak called, "Where The Wild Things Are". It tells the story of a little boy named Max who, one evening, "dresses up in his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another". His mother calls him "WILD THING" and Max says "I'LL EAT YOU UP", so he is sent to bed without any supper. In his bedroom that night Max travels to a forest beside the ocean where a boat takes him to an island "where the wild things are". The wild things roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws; but Max learns to make them still and control them so they make him their king and he leads them in a wild rumpus. But Max grows lonely among the wild things and wants to go back to where someone loves him best of all. Suddenly he smells something good to eat so clambers into his boat travels back, away from the wild things, to his room where he finds his supper waiting for him.

It is a story that can be read at many levels. On the surface, of course, it is a story of adventure and imagination. Go a bit deeper and it's a story of a child learning to cope with emotions of anger and frustration. Go deeper still and it's a story of everyman learning to accept and control, and indeed value, the wild things that are inside each one of us. The bits of ourselves we carefully hide away from others and often try to hide away from ourselves.

In our Gospel reading today Mark tells us, that after Jesus was baptised "the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him." If we read the gospels of Matthew and Luke we are given detailed accounts of the temptations which confront Jesus: to turn stones to bread to feed his hunger; to cast himself down from the temple as a miraculous sign to the people; to worship Satan so that the kingdoms of the earth will be given him. Temptations to put his own needs and bodily appetites first; to seek to rule through fame and celebrity; or to impose his will by raw power. In Mark's gospel these temptations are not described in detail; and I for one am glad of that. Mark's brief account - just one sentence long - is, for me, just as valuable as Luke's or Matthew's longer versions.

What is happening here? Jesus has just been baptised and at the moment of Baptism is affirmed by a voice from heaven which says, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.' Fully aware of who he is Jesus will set out on a path of proclaiming the Kingdom rule of God; a path which will lead him to the cross. Fully God, he enters upon this path in full awareness of where it will take him. Fully human, he enters upon this path with all the hopes and fears that you or I would have, and indeed with greater hopes and fears than you or I.

So he goes out into the desert, compelled to do so by the Holy Spirit of God. It is an interesting fact that Monotheism - the belief in one God - always arises in the desert. As one Jewish comedian put it - "in the desert we were so poor we could only afford one God." In the Bible the desert is the place where one goes to encounter God. Moses meets God in a burning bush, out in the desert. The Israelites pass through that same desert and encounter God and receive his law and his covenant. Elijah, despairing and despondent, goes out into the desert and finds his faith renewed. Latter prophets follow, so does John the Baptist and so does Jesus. In the letter to the Galatians we read that Paul the Apostle went out into the desert after his conversion to spend time with God. In the years after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman state the life of the Christian Church in the cities became comfortable and compromised and a new movement began, lead by St. Antony. Young men and women abandoned the cities to live alone and in communities out in the desert. Thus the monastic movement began. A movement which continues to this day. It's a little known fact that amongst Christian Copts of Egypt today there is a vast revival of faith and a huge renewal of the desert life. Christian monks from Egypt brought their way of life to this land an had a huge influence on the Celtic Saints like Columba, Ninian, Chad, Cedd, Aidan, Hilda and Cuthbert. The sought the out desert places on remote islands because they wanted to encounter God; and they did, and renewed by that encounter they carried the Good News of Jesus across Europe. The desert is the place of encounter with God and a springboard for ministry to the world.

But the desert is also a place of battle. Saint Anthony in his writings describes the battles he has with demons which seek to drag him away from the encounter with God. The Temptation of Saint Anthony has been the subject of astonishing art from Hieronymus Bosch to Salvador Dali. Bizarre and grotesque demons are shown tearing at the Saint while he is at prayer. I believe that we are to understand this psychologically. These demons are the "Wild things" that seek to consume us, to drag us down, to make us less than we can be.

Which of course brings us back to Max in his room, and to our own struggle. We can and we should seek out the desert. Perhaps literally - a few years ago I spent two weeks in the Sinai desert and is was a very special experience for me. Perhaps in the more comfortable deserts of places we can go to be alone and meet God face-to-face. For me Holy Island is such a place. Perhaps in just a few minuets of 'desert time' grabbed from a busy day in order to be alone and open to God.

But we can also find ourselves driven out into the desert, the desert of bereavement, or sickness, or unemployment, disappointment or failure. Deserts we would not choose to occupy. Places of conflict and battle where "the wild things" tear at us and demons tempt us. The astonishing thing is that this desert too can be the place where God is encountered. That this desert too can be a springboard for ministry. And that the place "Where The Wild Things Are" can also be the place where angels minister to us.

3rd Sunday of Advent – 14th December, 2008

Isaiah 61.1-4,8-11
1 Thessalonians 5.16-24
John 1.6-8,19-28

A few weeks ago the PCC met to try to think about the future of St. John's and work on the process of discerning the road that God is calling us to travel to the future he has prepared for us. Most of you will already know that as part of that process it has been decided that from February we would, once a month on the first Sunday of the month, have a different form of service – a more informal service which we hope might be encouraging for those who are already part of the family of the this church and provide an easy and welcoming 'way further in' for those who are on the fringes.

During the discussion at the PCC one of the things that emerged from our thinking was the need to explore further not just what we wanted the church to be and do but what God's purpose was for us. A few years ago there was a lent discussion course entitled "What on earth is the church for?" and remember hearing that rephrased as "What is the church on earth for?" That is the question the PCC was asking. Why has God called us to be his church in this place. What is the mission he expects us to undertake?

As these thoughts arose during our discussions I was reminded that Jesus himself began his ministry with a very clear idea of what it was that God intended for him to do. He expressed that mission when he preached at the synagogue in Nazareth and chose as his text words from the passage we read as our old testament lesson this morning –

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
   because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
   to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
   and release to the prisoners; 
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour …

And one can see clearly that in His ministry of preaching, teaching, healing and deliverance He fulfils the mission that God the Father has entrusted to him. During that ministry he called disciples to learn from him and sent them out to do the things he did. His disciples became his Apostles, a word which means "one who is sent". In our Christian life together we stand in continuity with those first disciples as part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and the task which is entrusted to us is the one which Jesus undertook in his ministry, for which He commissioned those first apostles and which they have passed on to us.

A few years ago it was fashionable among young Christians to wear a bracelet or a pendant with the letters WWJD on them. It stood for "What Would Jesus Do?" The young Christian, faced with a dilemma, was supposed to ask themselves "What would Jesus do in this situation?" It's a powerful question and far larger than simple personal ethics. It's a question which challenges us a Christian Community. If Jesus were physically present among us here and now in Stansted what would he do? And what does he expect us as his disciples to do?

 

John the Baptist was, of course, not a disciple of Jesus but his herald and forerunner. And yet in many ways it is John who shows us very clearly the way in which we as a community need to make following Jesus the centre of our life together. In our Collect today we prayed:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way

The task of the "ministers and stewards" of the mysteries of Christ is to prepare his way. Now whilst I recognise that the clergy have special responsibilities in this area I don't believe that being a "minister and steward" of the mysteries of Christ is something which is solely for the clergy. All Christians are called to such ministry and stewardship. Just as John knew clearly exactly who and what he was so we need to know who and what we are. Sometimes I come across Christians who think the Church ought to be supported because it is somehow a good thing in itself. But the Church never exists for itself – it exists for Jesus and without him there is no point to its existence. Like John we do not proclaim ourselves but cry out "Make straight the way of the Lord"

 

Yet we do that in some very down to earth ways. The doctrine of the incarnation which we celebrate at Christmas is central to the Christian faith. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. God was man in Palestine. The Christian faith calls us not simply to hold that the doctrine and teaching of Jesus is a good idea but to live it out in the place where we dwell amongst the people that surround us. In his letter to the Thessalonians St. Paul gives a series of terse but practical commands:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.

It's about living trustfully and expectantly but also realistically in the light of who Jesus is and what he has done. Not to quench the Spirit but to allow God to have his way in us and through us and among us. Not to complain but to be thankful. Not to do evil but good.

I've a feeling that 2009 is going to be a difficult year for many people – perhaps for many of us. In all times but especially in "such a time as this" the world needs to hear the message of hope promised by Isaiah, heralded by John and made present in the life and ministry of Jesus. I believe that God is both calling and enabling this church, this benefice and this congregation to play its part in proclaiming the message of salvation in the difficult times ahead.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has written:

The Church of God has to be the salt and light of the world. We are the hope of the hopeless, through the power of God. We must transfigure a situation of hate and suspicion, of brokenness and separation, of fear and bitterness. We have no option. We are servants of the God who reigns and cares. He wants us to be the alternative society; where there is harshness and insensitivity, we must be compassionate and caring; where people are statistics, we must show they count as being of immense value to God; where there is grasping and selfishness, we must be a sharing community now.

In the early Church people were attracted to it not so much by the preaching, but by the fact that they saw Christians as a community, living a new life as if what God had done was important, and had made a difference. They saw a community of those who, whether poor or rich, male or female, free or slave, young or old— all quite unbelievably loved and cared for each other. It was the lifestyle of the Christians that was witnessing.

The proclamation of that message, not just by what we say but by who we are, is the mission entrusted to us and all God's people.

So may the God of peace himself sanctify us entirely; and may our spirits and souls and bodies be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls us is faithful, and he will do this. Amen.

Bible Sunday

Nehemiah 8.1-6, 8-12
Colossians 3.12-17
Matthew 24.30-35

Today is Bible Sunday. Of course there is a real sense in which every Sunday is Bible Sunday. As we gather as God's people on a Sunday we gather around a Table and a Book, and that duel emphasis is very important. God meets us at the table; God meets us in the book. So just as every Sunday is communion Sunday so every Sunday is Bible Sunday. But just as it might be useful at some point to take a particular Sunday to look at what we think we are doing as we gather at the Table, so it is important to take time to look at what we are doing as we open the book and read the Bible together. This last Sunday in October has, in recent years, become a particular day for doing that. It is also a time when we give thanks for the Bible and we pray for the work of those who translate, distribute and interpret the Bible; and particularly a day to give thanks and pray for the work of the Bible Society.

The Bible readings which are set for today encourage us to think about the Bible and its place in the life we share together.

Our Old Testament reading was taken from the book Nehemiah. It is the 8^th of October in the year 445 BC and the Jewish people have returned from exile in Babylon. The temple has been rebuilt and the people gather to rededicate not just the temple but themselves. Ezra the priest and Nehemiah gather together all the people at Torah, the first five books of Old Testament, are read aloud to them. In some Bibles this passage is described as 'the birth of Judaism' – up to this point the worship of Israel has been based around animal sacrifices but now the reading of scripture becomes a central act of worship. The Jewish community is formed by its relationship with Scripture. And that relationship continues to this day. Today the central act of Jewish worship is the reading of scripture in a form exactly as described in the passage, and central focus of Jewish life is the study of scripture. And as Christians, particularly as Christians in a tradition which follows a liturgy, we also inherit a great deal from this moment in history.

What many Christians fail to realise is that the worship which we offer on a Sunday morning which follows a pattern which goes back to the earliest days of the church is in fact two separate services. I spoke of our duel focus, the table and the book. It is the Table that is the focus of the second service and that act of worship derives from the meals which Jesus shared with his disciples – and particularly, of course, the meal we call the last supper. The first act of worship – the one we are doing now – is focused around the book and derives from the worship of the synagogue in which Jesus participated; which in turn goes back to Ezra and Nehemiah. One sign of this separate origin for the two parts of act of worship is the fact that we say 'hello' to each other all over again half way through the service, at the peace.

Like the Jewish people since the time of Nehemiah we are called to be a people who gather around the Scriptures, allowing them to form us.

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What would a people formed by the Scriptures look like?

The image that is often portrayed of those who take the scriptures seriously is of judgemental Bible Thumpers who are quick to condemn, slow to listen, and so assured of their own rightness that they are not simply unwilling but unable to believe that others may have a valid point of view. Sadly some Christians really are like that. I would want to say that they are not, in fact, Christians who take the Bible seriously. And less you mis-understand what I'm saying I would want to say that such an attitude is not limited to particular any particular theological outlook. Some of the narrowest minded people I have met in the Church have been so called 'broadminded liberals'. No, taking the Bible seriously means being willing to let it transform you. In our second reading today Paul, writing to the Colossians, calls on them to be transformed by the 'word of Christ'. And the qualities that the transformation will bring out are "compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness ... love ... wisdom ... worship, thanksgiving". Now that transformation is a life long journey which is undertaken through the day by day encounter with Christ. And how do we encounter Christ day by day? In many ways – but one way in particular is through our reading and study of the scriptures. We do not read the scriptures out of interest or to gain knowledge but to encounter Christ and be transformed by him.

The German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonheoffer, wrote:

God's speech in Jesus Christ meets us in the Holy Scriptures. If we want to pray with assurance and joy, then the word of Holy Scripture must be the firm foundation of our prayer. Here we know that Jesus Christ, the Word of God, teaches us to pray. The words that come from God will be the steps on which we find our way to God.

Bonheoffer was writing at a time when he saw his nation descending into apocalyptic chaos. He knew that in such a time only a faith grounded in a deep knowledge of the Scriptures could have any chance of withstanding the anti-Christian forces at work in the society around him.

Bonheoffer writes:

How often we hear innumerable arguments 'from life' and 'from experience' put forward as the basis for the most crucial decisions, but the argument of scripture is missing. And this authority would perhaps point in exactly the opposite direction.

In our society in which abortion is now a normal thing, and which is rapidly towards the acceptance of euthanasia these words from the Germany of the late 1930's seem very relevant.

So let us respond to this call to be a people formed by the Scriptures, as the people who herd Nehemiah responded in their time. And to do that you can take some practical steps.

Firstly get a Bible you can read. I don't care if its the King James Version, or the New Revised Standard Version, or any other good translation. I do care if the print is so tiny that you can't see it. Get a Bible you can read.

Secondly, why not bring it to church? Instead of following the Bible readings on the sheet you follow them in your own Bible. You could mark the places before the service so you can find them quickly.

But thirdly and most importantly, read the Bible. Start with a Gospel –a chapter a day of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Mark is the shortest so a good place to start. After you've read one read another one for a different perspective – perhaps after Mark read John next. You might need some help – there are plenty of books to help you. Tom Wright has produced a whole series called 'for everyone' that guides you through the New Testament. Tom is Bishop of Durham and one of the best Bible expositors in the Church of England. And be prepared to be challenged and transformed. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Heaven and earth will pass away but the word of Christ will not pass away.