SERMON 3 – SUNDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2012

SERMON 3 – SUNDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2012 - St. John's Church, West Grimstead

Colossians 1:15-20 and John 1:1-14

Wow, what a fantastic piece of writing opens John’s Gospel –  what powerful words, words which are probably nearly as familiar to most Christians as is the Lord’s prayer itself.  “In the beginning…” not “Once upon a time” or “Many years ago” as writers of narrative often use - but right at the beginning of time.  A statement of absolute faith contained in those first three words of John’s Gospel.  Nothing existed before God.  John is clearly echoing the opening of Genesis, the first book of the Torah which would have been as well known to the Jews of the day as our liturgy is to us today (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”).  Just think about it for a moment – there was nothing before the beginning – just chaos and a void – so when John talks about the beginning he is saying, in clear words understood by his readers or listeners -  that this Jesus, born in Bethlehem, crucified and resurrected in Jerusalem, the Son of God was with God at the beginning of time – always - what a mind blowing concept for those early followers. This Jesus, recently on Earth in the living memory of John, was God incarnate not simply another prophet or holy man.

When I set about writing this sermon my thoughts strayed to how I could bring this concept alive and fresh to people who have already openly professed their faith in Christ – for that is what we as Christians have declared. In other words, this should be old hat to those who are already following Christ. Then I was reminded of my time in local and national politics when, following the fall of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady, the Conservative Party seemed to lose its way and the revived concept of consensus politics started to divide those in power. Different views on how policies should be carried forward, or not carried forward at all, brought crisis after crisis to the new Thatcherless Government. The new Prime Minister, John Major, then hit upon the notion of a campaign – do you remember what it was? - he called it “Back to Basics” which, I have to readily admit, didn’t do all it was meant to do and was often used against those trying to advocate it; but as a concept it is not a bad one and I think, when we read John 1 it is, in a way, leading us Christians back to just that, to take a long hard look at the basics of our Faith.

Paul in his letter to the Colossians, which we had read earlier, I think is doing just that - getting back to basics with the faithful in Colossae, a small city about 100 miles from Ephesus in what is now Turkey.  In the reading we had, he reminds us that Jesus is the image of the unseen God – that he is above all things and in him all things are held together – the firstborn of all creation. Paul says : He is the head of the body; the church; he is the beginning –  see here is another reference – the firstborn from the dead so that he might come to have first place in everything.

So! - where do we place Jesus in our daily lives today?  If we were to make a list of our priorities, Church, Family, Work, Sport, Home, where do we put him?  At the top, the beginning of our list, or do we do as I’ve heard one Christian say – “When I get to work I leave God/Jesus in the car, go into the office, do my work, and then pick him up again when I leave”.  Well it might surprise you to hear me say, no, we shouldn’t put Him on the top, at the beginning of our secular list, but in the centre of our lives !  He wants to be beside us in all you do, not simply adored and venerated and prayed to at those set times of the day or week – at church or before bed or when you wake up – important as they might be – but with us at our places of work, in the pub, at the football match, in the kitchen, in the garden, in the car, in fact everywhere and at all times.  We should not put him in a box to be taken out and then put away again when we have finished.

I have to confess, that I do sometimes put Christ lower down the list than I should – often at times when things seem to be going okay or when I feel  I am too busy getting on with the tasks of daily life – too busy to stop and talk to Him.  Sometimes, in fact, I think that I don’t need Him at all.  Yes, I can handle this, I tell myself.  The fact is, God is always there for us – he is there just for the asking.  I am often a bit similar to the man (in fact I am the man) who doesn’t like to ask for directions, even when lost, and ends up going round and round it circles. Can you identify with that?  Drives my wife mad!  Why don’t you ask that person over there? she says. We all, sometimes, also suffer from what aviators call “go-on-itus” – we struggle on alone getting ourselves into deeper trouble or, and this can sometimes be worse still, doing nothing; being paralysed by the fear of the unknown.

During his earthly life, Jesus made no small effort to get alongside ordinary folk – to be there for them.  We read in all the gospels how he dined with tax collectors and people who were outcast by the society in which they lived; he got alongside them speaking to them in their own language and in a way they could understand often in parable, guiding them and healing them. 

God was later described by John in Revelation (22.13) as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end and we acknowledge this in our Pascal Candle which will be lit once more at Easter.  Yes, Christ was there at the beginning, but He will remain with us until the very end; and He is with us now.  All we have to do is reach out for Him.

In a moment we shall say the Creed and later be in Communion with him at the altar rail.  When we leave the Church today, let’s not leave Him behind like my Christian friend did in the office car park.  Let’s take Him with us.  He will be there waiting anyway.   Let’s get back to basics, let’s remember those familiar words, let’s make Christ both the beginning and the end of our life’s priority list by putting him at the centre.

Amen

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