29th January 2012 - The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple

The most disputed piece of land in the world lies on a mountain top in the old city of Jerusalem. Surmounted today by the beautiful Moslem Dome of the Rock it is the site of the Temple built by Solomon.

The Jewish Temple on this site had been planned by King David but was built by his son Solomon. We read about the dedication of this Temple in the Second Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament which records the prayer which Solomon prayed at its dedication. We hear that after that prayer:

 ... fire came down from heaven and burned up the offerings. The Lord's dazzling glory then filled the temple, and the priests could not go in. When the crowd of people saw the fire and the Lord's glory, they knelt down and worshiped the Lord.

This sign of the Lord’s glory was called the Shikinah glory or the glory of his presence. It had been seen in the tabernacle which Moses had built.  This was the place where God was worshiped during the forty years in the wilderness. Its presence at this point is a sign of God’s continued presence with his people.

The Temple and its worship continued for over 400 years but in the year 598BC the Temple was destroyed when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem. The prophet Ezekiel describes a vision which took place shortly before the destruction of the temple in which the Glory of the Lord rises from the Temple and departs from it. The Temple was not rebuilt for more than 80 years. However when the Temple was finally reconsecrated in the year 516BC there was no appearance of God’s Glory. One of the questions that was being asked was ‘when would God’s glory return to the temple?’ The prophet Malachi was one of those who looked forward to the day that that would happen.

---

At the time when Jesus was born the Temple was a busy place. First of all it was a building site. Herod the King was enlarging and renovating the Temple as part of his major building project. Also the Temple courts would be filled with the greatest Jewish teachers and their disciples. When he was twelve years old Jesus would visit the temple again and become so enthralled by the words of the teachers that he would forget to return home when the time came. Then there were the many hundreds of priests who were trained in the rituals and ceremonies which needed to be performed. Finally, even then, the Temple courts would be filled with the traders selling animals for sacrifice and the money changers who specialised in exchanging the normal everyday currency for the special money required to pay the temple taxes. And there also were a group of the pious in the courts. Mostly elderly they were people who devoted the rest of their lives to prayer and worship in this most special of places. I’ve met people like them today and they glow. Amongst these were Simeon and Anna

---

Like all first born Jewish boys of his time Jesus was presented in the Temple forty days after his birth. The law of Moses stated that the first born of humans and of domestic animals belonged to God. An animal should be sacrificed but a human being was to be redeemed, that is, bought back by the paying of a price and the offering of an alternative sacrifice; for the rich a lamb, for the poor two doves or pigeons.

So Joseph and Mary come to the Temple in Jerusalem carrying the baby Jesus. I love David Kossoff’s description of this moment in his Book of Witnesses:

Then a poorly dressed couple approached. The woman rather younger than the man and carrying her baby son. The man carrying the most modest offering allowed by the Laws of Moses. A pair of doves. Simeon got to his feet. He was trembling, and I went nearer in case he should need help. He went forward, not as I thought to bow low to the man, but to take the baby in his arms. He stood and lifted his face and spoke to God, as to a loving friend who’d kept a promise. He blessed God, and thanked him. ‘Now I can die in peace,’ he said. ‘I have seen him – and held him in my arms.’

---

This was the moment when Malachi’s prophecy was fulfilled, ‘The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.’  But amongst the busyness of the temple no one noticed. The priests had far more important things to do. The teachers were too engaged in imparting wisdom to listen for it, and the workers were simply too busy. Only amongst the small group of the pious, the devout, did two people realise that the day they had been longing for had arrived. Simeon and Anna alone amongst the vast crowd recognised the Lord when at last he came to his temple.

What about us? One of the things which everyone recognises today is how busy we all are. The French Priest, Michelle Quiost wrote:

They pass by on earth, always rushing, hurrying,
jostling, weighed down, snowed under, nearly demented.
And they never get there, there's not enough time.
Despite all their efforts, there's never enough time.

That was written forty years ago, and if anything things have got worse. Yet the truth is often busyness is a choice we make. We cannot make time for anything, for time is not ours to make, but we can choose how the time we are given is deployed. To quote Quoist again:

I don't ask this evening Lord,
for time to do this or that.
I ask for the grace to do conscientiously,
in the time that You gave me,
the thing that You want me to do.

One of the questions that our Bishop is asking of us is how we can become more and more a people of prayer.

More than anything else, we need to become a people of prayer; whose daily lives are formed and punctuated by our relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

Let’s not be like those in the temple who missed the point of the whole thing because they were too busy to see it. Today let’s take as our example Simeon and Anna so that we can say with them, “My eyes have seen your salvation”.

22nd January 2012 - Epiphany 3

When people plan a wedding they often have huge expectations of what a perfect day it will be. Most of the time things work out OK but sadly sometimes the wires get crossed and disasters happen. I’ve taken my fair share of weddings over the years and thankfully the church service has always gone to plan but I have had a couple of weddings when the arrangements after the church have not gone as well as the church service. On one occasion the police had to be called to the reception when someone took out a gun and began waving it around, and at another the caterers had failed to turn up so that when the bride and groom arrived at the hall they had hired, it was bare and empty.

There are two weddings in our readings today. The first is the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee at which the wine runs out. The second is the wedding feast at the end of the age when Jesus comes again to claim his bride, the church.

The story of the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee is told only in St. John’s Gospel. It is a familiar story. Like the stories with which I began the wedding was a disaster. A middle-Eastern wedding would last several days and the time would be spent feasting and drinking. It was a point of honour for families of the bride and groom that they should be able to provide for their guests. In the middle-east hospitality is an overwhelming priority and to fail in the provision was to be disgraced in the eyes of your neighbours. And such disgrace would adhere to the couple down through the years. When the wine ran out it was a disaster.

It has been suggested that those being married were members of Jesus’ extended family since Mary seems to be in the know about what is happening behind the scenes. She tells Jesus, “They have no wine”. Jesus seems reluctant to draw attention to himself but he acts. In the place where the wedding is being held there are six large jars of water each holding twenty to thirty gallons of water. Somehow, through Jesus’ action, the water is transformed into wine. I make that 150+ gallons of wine which works out at coming up to a thousand bottles. I think that would have lasted them a while.

I’ve said before that when you hear a story like this it is no use asking “What really happened?” That is a question we can never answer. What we can do is ask, “Why are we being told this story?” John seems to answer this question by filling the story with symbolic detail. It is a wedding feast because God is seen as being like a loving husband to his people. The water for rites of the law of Moses is transformed into the new wine of God’s Kingdom inaugurated in Jesus. The new wine of God’s grace is infinitly better than the old wine of legalism and fear.

All of this is important and commentators go to great lengths to draw out these and other details. But I want to lay that aside for a moment and focus on one thing. The difference that the presence of Jesus made.

Yesterday a number of us from this benefice attended a conference called together by Stephen our Bishop. It was an exercise in listening – listening to our Bishop, listening to one another, and above all listening to God. The conference was part of a process in our diocese entitled “Transforming Presence” in which the Bishop asks us to consider the priorities for the Church of England in Essex and East London over the next 10 to 15 years. Those priorities began with the fact that we are called to inhabit the world distinctively. It is no use us being Christians if that makes no difference to the way we live our lives and to the impact that we have on the society we inhabit.

Jesus’ presence at the wedding feast was a “transforming presence”. Things changed for the better because Jesus was there. The water was transformed into wine; and not just any wine but the best wine. The shame and humiliation of the family was transformed back into rejoicing as they were saved from the disaster which threatened to overwhelm them. The disciples were transformed by seeing Jesus’ action – he “revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”

When Jesus is present nothing remains the same. His presence is a transforming presence.

In his opening words yesterday Bishop Stephen asked us to consider two questions.

• How can my life be a blessing to those amongst whom I live?
• How can my church be a blessing to the community in which it is set?

My heart rejoiced when I heard those questions. You see, I don’t believe that the church is meant to be a refuge from the world around it. I believe the church is meant be a Transforming Presence in the world. We are called to show through our presence the presence of Jesus. The challenge that has been set before us is to ask how we do that. The answer, I believe, is that we do it by doing the things that Jesus did; proclaiming the good news, reaching out to those in need, and confronting the evil powers which oppress.

The second marriage feast in our readings today is the marriage feast at the end the age when Jesus comes for his people. I believe that there will come a time when Jesus will return physically to this earth as Lord and King, and that we his church are called to live now in the light of that future coming. When he comes he will come for his bride the church – for those who have followed him in every place and time.

Now in all the weddings I’ve ever taken one of the most important features of the day was the dress worn by the bride, and Jesus’ bride is also clothed in a wonderful dress.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure'--for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

The saints – that’s us folks, you and me. At the coming of Jesus the things we do now will be the garb that we wear then.

We’ve got some exploring to do together but it’s clear that we need to look at every aspect of our life in this place so that we can do the righteous deeds that are needed for us to be a transforming presence in this place – living together the life to which Jesus calls us, and doing together the deeds he would have us do.

15th January 2012 - Epiphany 2

Introduction

Many years ago, before the telephone existed, a telegraph company advertised a vacancy for someone who was familiar with Morse Code to fill a job as a telegraph operator. A number of people applied for the job and they were all called for interview. When they got to the telegraph office they were asked to wait. In the room where they sat they could hear the tap tap of the telegraph machine in the background. Suddenly one of the applicants stood up, crossed the room and walked into the supervisor’s office. The other applicants looked at one another and continued to wait. A few minutes later the supervisor came out of his office and told those who were still waiting, “You can all go home, the job’s been filled”. When they protested that this was not fair the supervisor explained, “Ever since you’ve been sitting here the telegraph key has been signalling, “Come straight into the office and the job is yours, but only one of you responded.” Each one of them had been called but only the one who had been listening was able to respond to the call.

Exposition

The theme that, for me,  emerges from our Bible Readings today is the theme of God calling people. The theme is apparent in the Gospel reading as Jesus calls Phillip and Nathanael but it’s the Old Testament reading that I particularly want to look at today. In this reading God called the young Samuel to deliver his message to Eli. For me this is a precious passage which I remember from my days as a child in Sunday School. That’s why I chose that Sunday School hymn about Samuel to follow it. I used to imagine myself as the young boy Samuel laying, half awake, beside the ‘sacred ark’ and hearing the voice of God calling to me. My fear is that through the passing years I may have become more like Eli, sleeping and unable to hear God when he calls because it’s too much effort to listen.

David Adam, the former vicar of Holy Island writes this about this passage:

The story of Samuel at Shiloh illustrates how the Church must often appear. Eli represents the Church; he is old and losing his vision. The light in the church has almost gone out. The sons of the ‘vicarage’, Hophni and Phineas, are not interested in following in their father’s footsteps. Into this situation is introduced a youngster and, as ever, he disturbs the church. Eli is trying to sleep. Samuel lies on his mattress listening to the sounds of the night. A voice calls. Samuel, who is about 12 years old, jumps up and wakes the old man. Eli and says, ‘you called.’ Tired, Eli says, ‘I did not call. Go back to bed my son.’ The Lord calls again, ‘Samuel!’ Once more Samuel jumps up and runs to Eli because he doesn’t know it was the Lord who was calling. Again Eli says, ‘I did not call. Go back to bed my, son.’ It is not long before the Lord calls a third time. For a third time Samuel disturbs Eli. This old priest, his vision fading, is able to guide the young man and send him back to his room, saying, ‘If he calls, you shall say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”’

The Church might be very old and find the young disturbing, but God speaks through new voices. At the same time the young will be lost without the guidance of the old.

Samuel heard the voice and said, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ In this way God was able to speak to Samuel and through Samuel.

How often do we fail to hear because we are unwilling to listen? We are often too busy or too prejudiced to hear the voice of God.

How can we make room in our lives to hear the still small voice of God?

Application

Just before Christmas both and David Keble and I received a letter from a couple who told us they had felt called by God to begin a new church here in Stansted – the Stansted Family Church. My first reaction was to feel threatened. How dare they claim that God had called them onto my patch to set up a church in opposition to mine. But as I reflected on the letter, and discussed it with David, I began to realise that in fact I was responding from fear, not faith. Both of us have been told many times that the people of our two churches are so very busy that they don’t have time to proclaim the Gospel or reach out to those in the community who are different from the people in our churches. Both of us are aware that our buildings consume so many resources that there is little left over to use for our mission. God is not mocked. If we will not do his work he will use others to do it. If Eli can longer hear his voice then he will speak to Samuel.

In the Bible reading it’s too late for Eli. Had we read on and heard the words God speaks to Samuel we’d discover they were terrifying words of condemnation:

The time has come for me to bring down on Eli's family everything I warned him of, every last word of it. I'm letting him know that the time's up. I'm bringing judgment on his family for good. He knew what was going on, that his sons were desecrating God's name and God's place, and he did nothing to stop them. This is my sentence on the family of Eli: The evil of Eli's family can never be wiped out by sacrifice or offering."

(1Sa 3:12-14)

For us, I think, there is still time. I don’t believe that God sent me to this place for no reason. God is bringing about two new initiatives which will have an effect on us all. Next Saturday the Bishop of Chelmsford has called together over a thousand people from across the diocese to listen for what God is calling us to. Cheryl, Peter and Matthew from this congregation (together with myself) have been called to be part of that. We want to be listening not sleeping. When we come back we will try to share with you the things we believe God has said.

And also David Keble and I will be running a course on Mission starting on the 29^th of February. It is our hope that every single person from both this Church and the Free Church will attend to ask “What is God calling us to do here?” The next step is then to get on and do it.

Let’s not be like Eli and fall asleep, too tied up with our busy lives to listen to God. Let’s let our words be those that Samuel says, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”