Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish -
Morning Worship – Sunday 4 February
2018
Proverbs
8:1, 22-31; Colossians 1:15-20; John
1:1-14
May the words of my mouth and the
meditation of all our hearts be always acceptable to you, O God. Amen
It may come as something of a surprise
to us that the Church’s Lectionary has these well-known words at the beginning
of John’s Gospel as today’s reading so soon after Christmas when we heard them
read out as the last reading for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols. We may
also hear these scriptural passages read out again at the end of the Ash
Wednesday service. It is so familiar to
us, echoing as it does, the opening words of Genesis, the very first words of
our Holy Bible, yet when written it was quite revolutionary – new words for a
new era – a revolution and a revelation of the true theology long practised by
the Hebrews but not understood by them. It
not only reminds us that Jesus Christ was God incarnate but that as such he had
always been there – he was God who was there at the beginning of Creation and
will be with us always and that this new era marks the beginning of a New
Creation.
This is where our religious belief
differs so markedly from those of the other two Judeo religions. Judaism tells us the there is only one God,
Yahweh, and that there have only been prophets; The Messiah, is yet to come. Islam tells us that Mohammed was a great prophet
but that he is separate and distinct from Allah, their word for the same God. Our own Faith, which is sometimes very
difficult to understand by those who are not Christians, confuses people into
thinking that we actually worship three Gods, Yahweh, the same remote God as
worshipped by the Hebrews (which is true) but also two further Gods – Jesus
Christ and the Holy Spirit, whilst others think of Jesus Christ as a good man
and prophet but not divine. So it is
sometimes extremely difficult for us to explain that we actually are a mono-theological
faith – believing in one God but in three forms – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Now this is not Trinity Sunday so I
don’t want to go into great lengths about the Trinity but I do think it very
important, as we come to just less than two weeks before the beginning of Lent,
to reflect upon the importance of John’s theology at the beginning of his
Gospel and to see this in the context of what went before and Paul’s own
theology in today’s readings. It’s really
big stuff and I don’t want to turn this sermon into a heavy theological lecture
but allow us some time to think about the implications for our world today.
“In
the beginning” – so starts both Genesis and John. “In the
beginning God” (Genesis) “In the
beginning was the Word” (John). Immediately
John is using the first words of the Torah, the important first five books of
the Hebrew bible, to emphasise this most important point – both God and the
Word (Jesus) were together – one and the same. As Jesus told his disciple
Philip in John 14 - “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not
know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say,
‘Show us the Father’?
In other words, we need
the wisdom and discernment which Jesus can give us in his teachings and actions
to understand this and which, in our first reading in Proverbs, reminds us of
the importance of such wisdom - “Does not wisdom call, and does not
understanding raise her voice?” (Proverbs 8.1) – and then, harking back to
Genesis “The LORD created me at the
beginning of his work, the first of his acts long ago” (Proverbs 8:22)
The Hebrew word for
“beginning” also means “sum total”, “first fruits”, and the word “in” can also
mean “through” or “for” – so the words “In the beginning” can also mean
“through the sum total of God and Christ” – in other words “Christ is the one in, through and for whom creation and redemption are
accomplished”.
As Paul tells us in his
letter to the Colossians “Christ is the
image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation for in him all
things in Heaven and on Earth were created – things visible and invisible” (Colossians
1:15-16).
And later “Christ is the head
of the body, the church, he is the beginning.” (Colossians 1:18). In other words we are reminded that Jesus is
the head of our church, and it is in, through and for him only that all things
are accomplished.
John makes it very much
plainer still in his opening Gospel. He
reminds us that nothing came into being in the world which did not involve
God’s Creation and as Jesus Christ is also God Incarnate, then nothing came
into being which Jesus Christ did not create. The strength of his ministry and
his Word, and ultimate death are made all the more stronger by the revelation of
him as divine as well as human. He has the ultimate authority in our lives and
world; the rest of us just have a tenancy, a stewardship of his creation.
As Christians this is
the Good News which we are expected to reveal to all we meet. The challenge for us is how do we do this in
a world of secular values?
Earlier I said that
this message can be extremely difficult for Non-Christians to understand and
that is the reason that often the Gospel of John is given out to non-believers
or those who have recently attended an Evangelical Church to get over this
message of the oneness of Christ and God.
When I get involved in
conversations with non-believers who are curious as to my Faith the
conversation often begins with the words “Why
do you believe in God an invisible person we cannot see?” God the remote being somewhere out there
beyond our world in space. Just think
for a moment, how do you envision God?
It may be a white-bearded Old Man looking down on us and keeping a
record of all our misdeeds, that certainly was my image as a child, or is he or
she somebody loving – a good mate or a loving parent? We may have many different ideas as to the
entity which we pray to or it may be just a great mystery and we really don’t
feel we know. This coming Lent let us
all try and understand and apply the wisdom we have been given to get closer to
Jesus.
Jesus told Philip “If you have seen me you have seen the
Father” and that is why it is so important for us to follow closely the
teaching of Jesus from the Bible. God
came down to Earth in human form so as to be amongst us and as John says “we have seen his glory … full of grace and
truth” (John 1:14).
Christianity is about
relationships – it is about loving God, not being frightened of him. He loves
us unconditionally, he created us and as
such only wants what is good for us – just as those of us who are parents want
only the best for our children. Jesus
has something to say about this too - “Who
when his child asks for bread to eat would give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9)
God wants a
relationship with us – he gave us himself in human form for 33 years on Earth
and then left us with his Holy Spirit – that same spirit which is described as sweeping
over the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2. As the church, as the body of Christ it is
important to maintain that relationship.
Christianity is based on that relationship and not on the observance of
the rules and regulations of Faith as with the Hebrews of the time. Jesus made that very clear when talking with
the Pharisees and Sadducees and with many of his seeming provocative actions;
but at the same time reminding them that he had come to fulfil the law not
break it.
If we are to be true
followers of Christ we must get the message of God’s incarnation across and the
importance of having a true relationship with Him.
In this period of Lent
leading up to Holy Week and beyond let us reflect on the awesomeness of John’s
statement at the beginning of his Gospel “that
[whilst] no one has seen God the Father; it is God the only Son … who has made
him known” (John 1:18). Let us also
use these forthcoming weeks to build up that relationship through prayerful meditation,
giving thanks that God became incarnate for our salvation.
Let us pray: (after
Michael Forster)
Thank you, God, for
incarnation:
For taking the risk of being
human,
Of making friends
Of offering love
Of living in hope
Thank you for being here,
for calling us to do that too
Thank you, God, for
incarnation.
Amen.
MFB/108/02022018
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