Sermon
delivered at All Saints Parish Church, Farley, Evensong
on Sunday 28th October 2018
Deuteronomy 32: 1-4; John 14: 15-26
May
I speak in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
I was faced with quite a dilemma as to what I should preach
on bearing in mind that according to the Church’s Calendar today is a triple
celebration – the Last Sunday on Trinity, Bible Sunday and the Festival of St.
Simon, St. Jude and all the Apostles! I
hope you will forgive me if I tell you that I have chosen to say a little bit
about the bible as well as a brief biography on the life of St. Jude. Perhaps the latter is most appropriate
considering that St. Jude is the official Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes!
Jude is believed to be the brother of James the Younger,
the fisherman and as such we can make a reasoned guess that he too was in that
profession. He is referred to as one of
the Twelve Disciples in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles (also
written by Luke) but does not appear at all by that name in the other gospels
although in Matthew and Mark it is believed that the name Jude is replaced by
Thaddeus – possibly to stop him being confused with Judas Iscariot. It is
firmly believed that he was not the brother of Jesus’s own brother, James
although theologians still remained divided on this. He wrote one epistle, the
Book of Jude, and it is not clear who were the recipients – possibly the
Gnostics as he labours the point about being led astray by false teachers and
licentious living. There is no mention
of his calling by Jesus despite being named as one of the twelve. It is believed that he did challenge Jesus at
the Last Supper as to why Jesus made his true status known only to the
disciples and not the world at large – Jesus’s response being that he and the
Father would visit all those who loved and obeyed him. This is recorded in
John’s Gospel and in the piece of scripture read to us earlier.
After Pentecost little is known of him. It is believed that he spent much time in
Armenia, northern Persia (Iran), and is believed to have been martyred
alongside the apostle Simon the Zealot at Beirut It is for this reason that
their Saint’s Day is the same – 28th October being the date on which
their possible execution, by be-heading, is recorded. The iconic symbol for
both being an axe. It is believed that Jude was around 68 years of age when he
wrote his epistle, moved to do so by the corruption and deceit he saw around
him and the divisions which were appearing amongst the early Christians. His message in his epistle is a very simple
one and one we need to follow today – those who fall away from the true ideals
of Christ’s teaching – who give themselves up to pride and lust will suffer
God’s judgment. True Christians must build up their faith to resist such
temptations and live in the light of Jesus’s second coming by praying and using
the power of the Holy Spirit which was made available to all humans at
Pentecost. There is then no need to be afraid or despair. The Holy Spirit will protect us and give us
all the power we need in a difficult and challenging world.
This does, therefore, lead me on to a consideration of
the word of God through the bible. On
this Bible Sunday and I don’t think I can emphasise enough how the word of God
remains so alive and relevant in this modern day despite having been written so
many centuries ago. So many of the situations we find ourselves in now and ones
which have occurred and been experienced by those early writers. On this Bible Sunday I would like to pay tribute
to a great American theologian who died earlier this week – Eugene Petersen -
who was 85 and a very inspirational pastor and writer. Although he was the prolific writer of over
twenty spiritual books he is probably most famous for his paraphrase of the
Holy Bible called “The Message” – a
copy of which I always keep close by me in my study. Apparently 15 million
copies are in the hands of Christians throughout the world. It should be
emphasised that The Message is a
paraphrase and should not be treated as an accurate translation from the Greek
or Hebrew but it does give a really good flavour, in modern day vernacular
English, of the sentiments and history which are expressed in more formal terms
in the established translations. Petersen’s version of John 14:15-26 in The Message, which we heard read to us
in the Second Lesson in the New Revised Standard Version is very clear – Jesus
is leaving his earthly ministry but he will be replaced by the Holy Spirit –
another form of God which will remain on Earth for all time and the disciples
should not feel that they are being left alone
.
We would do well to remember that Jesus did indeed leave
us a friend in the form of the Holy Spirit until his return
.
I think I can do no better than to read out to you again
the Second Reading as paraphrased in the Message – as an easy explanation of
that passage and in memory of a great and respected modern theologian:
John 14:15-27 The Message (MSG)
The Spirit of Truth
15-17 “If you
love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and
he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you.
This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because
it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know
him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20 “I will
not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will
no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re
about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my
Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.
21 “The
person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the
person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make
myself plain to him.”
22 Judas
(not Iscariot but Jude the brother of James the Younger) said, “Master, why is
it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”
23-24 “Because
a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he
will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into
the neighbourhood! Not loving me means
not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message
of the Father who sent me.
25-27 “I’m
telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy
Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to
you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well
and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way
you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t
be distraught.
I pray that with these words of John, we may all leave
this church tonight knowing the truth of Jesus’s words being filled with the
knowledge of the wholeness, power and love and truth of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
MFB/25102018
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