Sermon at St. John’s Parish Church,
West Grimstead, Salisbury - Morning Worship - Sunday 11 January 2015
Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen
When I started the preparation for this sermon – on the topic
of the Baptism of Christ, I did what I suspect a lot of preachers do – I went
back through my old sermons to see if I had preached on it before and, if so, whether
there was anything I could use again or indeed if I could preach the whole
thing again. Well, I discovered that I
had indeed preached on it before, exactly one year ago, and the congregation I
had preached it to was none other than yourselves. Knowing how well attentive you all are here,
at St. John’s, to the sermons preached I was confident that I could not get
away with giving you the same sermon twice – you would have readily remembered
what I had said last time – yes?
Today’s first reading takes us back to page one of the bible
– those so well known words of the Creation story. “In the beginning…God.” I’ll come back to
that in a moment.
Did any of you attend any of the “Darkness into Light”
services in the Cathedral last month? If you did, like me, you will have
witnessed a wonderful spectacle as the cathedral, cloaked in darkness,
gradually became filled with light from hundreds of candles – from a single
candle at the west end right up to the Trinity Chapel in the east – before the
Prisoners of Conscience Window. Candle upon candle was lit, down the nave and
side aisles and into the transepts and chapels – filling the nooks and crannies
of that wonderful medieval building with a wonderful warm glow. This was
figuratively to announce the coming into the world of God incarnate – the Light
of the World. In the same way that our Genesis reading this morning starts “In the beginning…” so does John’s
gospel start - the same echoing of that first book of the bible. “In the
beginning was the Word” (Jesus) just as in the beginning was God –
emphasising that the two are one and the same and then a little later on John
announces that John the Baptist was not the “Light” but gave testimony to the
“Light” – the light being of course Jesus.
It is therefore no coincidence that John chooses to commence
his gospel in this way. For many
theologians, the coming of Christ into the world is seen as a Second Creation.
The world which God had created had gone so horribly wrong, following the Fall
and the Flood, that it needed God to come down to Earth as a man and put things
right - by his three years of ministry and his ultimate atonement for our sins,
past, present and future, on the Cross.
John, like Mark, then moves immediately into the narrative of
Jesus’s baptism. Scholars readily
acknowledge that the first gospel to be written was that of Mark’s and as we
embark upon Year B in the Church of England’s lectionary, so Mark’s gospel will
unfold in all the gospel readings we have throughout the year. Mark’s gospel advances at an immense pace –
it seems that Mark is in such a hurry to get everything recorded and written
down yet unlike Matthew and Luke, there is no Christmas story – no birth
narrative, no shepherds, no wise men or lowing cattle or even donkeys. Mark plunges straight in with the reading
we’ve just heard. So for both Mark and John this is a significant point in
Jesus’s history on Earth – marking as it does the beginning of his ministry –
the moment when God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit unite in one place on Earth –
the Holy Spirit descending like a dove and God announcing that he is well
pleased – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all together on
Earth.
In Genesis, we see the three together again at the First
Creation – “The earth was without form
and void”; “the Spirit of the God
moved over the waters” and “God
divided the darkness and the light”.
Let us compare that to the baptism story – The Earth was a
fallen place, Man had lost his connections with God by making religious observance
rather than genuine worship of greater importance. But here, right at the
beginning of this New Creation we see God in the form of a man and how does he
begin his ministry – with water and the Holy Spirit – demonstrating a rebirth. Symbolically, in full immersion baptisms,
there is a figurative death of old ways – “repentance” to use the word of John
the Baptist as the person goes under the water and a figurative re-birth (being
“born again” as the Charismatics say) as he or she is raised up out of the
water.
Did Jesus (God incarnate) need to be baptised? Well yes – to show the way to others and
demonstrate the re-birth, the re-creation so necessary for our salvation.
I want to say a little bit more about light and also look at
our second reading from Acts.
In my village, Winterslow, there has been debate going on for
many years now about whether or not the main roads should be street-lit. The general consensus has been that they
should not, as the darkness which descends upon the village at night,
particularly at this time of year, affords such wonderful views of God’s wider
creation – the wonders of the heavens – the night sky – and on good nights we
can see wonderful views of the Milky Way, the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, the
Great Nebula on Orion and so on. These
are light years away from us - millions of light years away in fact. Through my telescope, for example, the
furthest I have seen is 40 million light years away – a galaxy in the
constellation of Leo, the Lion. I am literally looking at something as it
appeared 40 million years ago. It might not even be there now! My telescope is a time machine! As an amateur
astronomer I am sometimes asked whether the massive distances and study of the
cosmos, black holes, big bangs and so on test my faith as to whether there
really is a God. My answer is emphatic
- these things make me even more sure
that there is a God and it also makes me feel quite important that despite the
vastness of God’s Creation – the Universe and maybe beyond even that – he sent
his only Son, Jesus Christ, down to planet Earth, a seeming small insignificant
planet orbiting a small unremarkable star in the out reaches of one of billions
of ordinary galaxies becomes he so loved our world and by implication – us!
Scientists will tell you that darkness is simply the absence
of light. You can demonstrate this quite
easily when you see a shadow. It is cast
when the light source is blotted out by an object. The only way in which that
shadow can be removed is either to remove the object or to provide another
light source. In the Genesis Creation
story we are told that God created the light and separated it from the
darkness. In fact we now know that day
and night are caused by the rotation of the Earth on its own axis which means
that, at one particular point on the Equator, for 12 hours the land is pointing
towards the Sun and for 12 hours the Sun has dipped below the horizon because
the land is pointing away from the Sun – but the Sun is always there and if you
were to travel in a space craft beyond the orbit of the Earth like the Apollo
astronauts, you would see the Sun all the time (as does happen at the poles).
In the same way God created light at the Second
Creation. The Light of God was always
there but humankind had placed objects (over reliance on religious observance
for example) and evil to blot out that original light. We were cut off from God and in shadow.
Christ became the second light to remove those dark places and the great news
is that with the Holy Spirit he is still here amongst us today shining his
light into the darkest places if we will only acknowledge and believe in him.
This leads us nicely into our Second Reading from Acts. Here we read of Paul, that new convert to
Christianity, meeting up with some new believers who, following the example of
Christ, had allowed themselves to be baptised like John – with water. Paul reminds them that such baptism was an
acknowledgement of repentance – that they had agreed to turn away from their
sins and follow the true faith taught by Jesus Christ, John being the testimony
to the light as written by John.
However, before his ascension, Jesus had promised his followers that in
due course they would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit
which had descended upon him at his baptism of repentance and had also hovered
over the fact of the water at the First Creation. In other words, necessary for
the completion of the conversion to being true Christians – followers of Christ
with full gifts and fruits of the Spirit. When the new believers told Paul they
didn’t know what he was talking about when he spoke of the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, Paul laid his hands upon them and baptised them in the name of Jesus
Christ and they received the Holy Spirit.
In our Church, generally when we baptise somebody we no
longer immerse them fully. However, symbolically we use water as did John and
the priest will make the sign of the Cross and baptise in the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At a later date, when the candidate has had an
opportunity to fully comprehend and make his own mind up, he may confirm those
commitments for himself. He is blessed with the Holy Spirit from the moment he
accepts Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
Baptism does not make us perfect. As Christians we are not perfect and all of
us have flaws. I remember the story
being told once by an evangelistic preacher at Spring Harvest that we are all
like cracked pots – not I hasten to say “crack pots” – although some might
disagree! – cracked pots within which
the light of Christ shines – for we should all have Christ’s light within
us. It is often only through our cracks,
our humility our vulnerability our fragility that the light can shine out to
others. The way we accept adversity.
James, in the first chapter of his book talks about us only
becoming “mature and complete” – the Hebrew word he uses means “perfect” –
through the perseverance brought about through trials in our lives. And so, to
be truly Christ-like, true and perfect followers of Christ we need to repent
(turn away from our dark ways); accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour (receiving
the Holy Spirit) and show his light with joy through the trials and
tribulations of this life. A mirror of Christ’s own life in fact – repentance
before John the Baptist, receiving and having the gifts of the Holy Spirit and
his final suffering on the Cross leading to his perfect resurrection.
What an incredible story and what an incredible act the
follow. Today, let us make a pledge to lead a life where our light can shine
out and dispel the gloom and darkness,
which often surrounds us and all those whom we should love – our
neighbour. Even through our cracks.
Let us pray a prayer inspired by Psalm 119
Almighty
God
We
are often beset by trials and difficulties
We
often feel surrounded by darkness or gloom
We often feel lost and hopeless
We often forget that you are always there with us
We often try and go it alone
We often forget to talk things through with you
We often let the pressures of this hectic life get us down
Help us to remember that you sent your Son, Jesus Christ
and the Holy Spirit to be with us in your Second Creation
That your word will continue to be a lamp to our feet
And a light to our path
And that we may glorify you in the light which you have put
within us
Amen
MFB/Sermon/51
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