SERMON 182 - SUNDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2023

SERMON AT TEAM EUCHARIST SERVICE – SUNDAY 29 JANUARY 2023 – CANDLEMASS

Malachi 3:1-5; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be yours and bless all who hear them. Amen.

When I was a treble chorister back in my schooldays in north Lincolnshire there were two pieces which we choir boys loved most from the Common Psalter – Psalm 117 and the Song of Simeon (Luke 2:29) – the “Nunc” as we called it.  Not because these pieces were particularly poetic or contained beautiful prose but because they were short!  If we could gabble through Evening Prayer quickly enough, we could race back home in time to follow whatever TV series was starting that Sunday evening at 7.30 p.m. I well recall the Forsyth Saga being on then.

Since that time, and certainly since training for the ministry, I have grown to like and understand more fully what the words of the “Nunc” actually mean and their importance to our faith. As I have grown older I have gone from identifying with the parents of the child Jesus – indeed when my own son Thom was born we took him into Salisbury Cathedral to give thanks for his safe delivery, where one of the cathedral guides remarked that I must be a very proud grandfather! – to identifying more with that true grandfather figure of Simeon.

We know very little about Simeon; perhaps he was a “temple” guide like the cathedral one who saw Thom, but we do know that he had a strong faith and a premonition that he would see the Messiah before he died.  His words, as recorded in the Nunc Dimittis, have become such an integral part of our evening prayer liturgy that their importance cannot be over emphasised.

It is a sad thing that often, in our modern-day wealthy western culture, the elderly are not respected to the same extent as in many poorer countries.  We tend to live in a society where we must make our own way and often don’t feel humble enough, or do not recognise the richness of the wisdom which older people can bring  to our lives or the experiences of life which they have and can share.

I recall, even here in Winterslow, there was an elderly lady who regularly went to the Nelson’s Arms for her lunch at the end of the week. Without mentioning names, I am sure some of you will know who I mean.  She was outwardly a “sweet little lady” who sometimes struggled with her purse, but on further discussions it was clear that in the past she must have been a very shrewd and strong individual when it was discovered that she had been behind enemy lines in partisan France as a member of Churchill’s SOE Secret Army sabotaging Nazi installations and railways. Looks can certainly deceived and an example of never dismissing an elderly person. We have our freedom to thank for her and others like her.

This passage of scripture constantly reminds me to respect the elderly because you never quite know what richness and wisdom they can bring to a situation.  We don’t actually know how old Simeon is – we are told he was a righteous man and had clearly studied scripture over many years.  He was clearly nearer the end of his life than the beginning because he was anxious to see our Lord before his own death.  However, we are told that he was not alone and that there was also Anna, a widow aged precisely at 84 who similarly had prophesised about the coming of Jesus.  I do wonder, as they looked upon the beautiful baby boy and his doting parents, what their true thoughts were about the sacrifice which would ultimately have to be made upon the Cross.  I recall Jeremy Davies, in a sermon he gave several years ago in ST John’s, Winterslow, wondering about those tiny hands which might now be opening and closing into tiny fists but would in years to come be stretched and spread out for the cruel nails of Calvary.  I can no longer think of this passage without that thought in my own mind.

Simeon, however was honest with the mother Mary when he said to her ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’  I do wonder what Mary made of that statement.

We call this celebration of Jesus’s presentation at the Temple “Candlemass” and although Lent and Easter are now just around the corner, it is a time for reflecting and celebrating the light of Christ coming into this world.  Just as Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple for “purification” and thanksgiving so we should celebrate Jesus amongst us today – the light to lighten the world – for both Jews and Gentiles.

We recently celebrated the arrival of other men of wisdom bringing their gifts and gold, frankincense and myrrh.  I pointed out when I preached at Epiphany that the importance of these strangers travelling from afar was to send an allegorical message that Jesus had come for everyone independent of their particular race, nationality, creed or colour. Today we celebrate that ministry of Jesus who came for all and especially the poor and outcast in our society. That is the legacy which he leaves us too as his disciples.

He is and remains the true light of the world and we as his disciples and his church, are empowered by that same Holy Spirit which came upon Simeon and Anna. We can best honour him by trying to do our best to bring light and peace to all whom we might encounter in our ordinary daily lives.

So often I hear elderly people say, “…if only I had done [this or that] in my life but I am too old now…” or “I am too old to even think about that now” or ‘’what I can do at my age?” But in my experience that is totally the wrong attitude to have. Okay, we might not feel up to going off to do missionary work in Mozambique or even training for formal church ministry here at home but there is always something which you can do, however old or inexperienced you are with the aid of the Spirit.  You can pray – either on your own or together.  A healthy prayer life, it is believed, can lead to a healthier life all round and prayer is, in this country and in the western world at large in very short supply at present.

Jesus once said to his disciples – “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”. There are so many issues in our current world, not least the wars and famines which seem to intensify daily, as well as people closer to home struggling with illnesses and the rise in the cost of living.  Each and every one of us who has given their life to Christ must remember that we carry his light within us and as we age so we can shine even brighter with all that experience and wisdom we have gained – not just from the good times of our life but also those times when our faith might have been sorely tested.

This morning we light candles to demonstrate the light of Christ coming into this world. At some point in or after the service we will extinguish them. When we do that let’s remember that the light continues to shine within us to help guide and strengthen the paths of ourselves and others.

I remember once being told that none of us is perfect.  Each of us has flaws – cracks if you like.  The older we are the more cracks we are likely to have because life will simply have knocked us about a bit. That is good news because the more cracks we have the more light is likely to filter through to the outside and to those around us. I like that thought – the more cracked or imperfect we are the brighter the light which we can shine.

The message today, then, is that just like Simeon and Anna, even if we feel our life is nearly over or we are not sure what we are currently doing with it – God will show us that there is still much we can usefully do in furtherance of his ministry here on Earth starting with praying with the Holy Spirit (the light) within us.

So, my challenge, what are you going to do from today when we blow out the allegorical lights on the candles in order to shine your own gifted light of Christ on others?

 

Amen                                                                                                  MFB/260120023/182

 

SERMON 181 - SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2023

 SERMON AT ALDERBURY ST. MARY’S CHURCH, ALL AGE WORSHIP

– SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2023 – EPIPHANY 2

Isaiah 49:1-7;  1 Corinthians 1:1-9;  John 1:29-42

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be yours and bless all who hear them. Amen.

When I was practising the law and, especially when preparing to take a case in court, the one thing which I would remind my clients, time and time again, was that under our adversarial system of justice in this country, it was imperative that their story or narrative as a witness hung together well.  I called it the “stick of rock theory” which had been conjured up by my principal – the lawyer who had first engaged me in my first legal job. He had told me, and I passed this on to my clients or witnesses, that their story or recollection would be challenged by the other side and, like a stick of seaside rock, if it had the words “Skegness” in it at the first lick it must have “Skegness” in it at the last.  Should “Brighton” or “Scarborough”, or “Blackpool” suddenly appear halfway through then the whole stick of rock – or narrative – was imperfect and open to challenge. I can honestly say, that during my career, sometimes “Brighton” or “Scarborough” might appear in our apparently wholesome “stick” of a case and we invariably lost those cases.

Looks can also often deceive.  Let me give you another example from my past.  Back in the 1980s I was intent on climbing the greasy pole of politics and stood for Parliament in South Wales. When I tell you that I stood in the Welsh coaling mining valleys as a Conservative you will understand why I, and my fellow candidates, were labelled in the press as the “Tory Kamikaze Squadron”.  I was quite young and naïve back then and when, calling upon a terrace house in the town of Maesteg (an arch typical mining town straight out of the novel “How Green was my Valley” by Richard Llewellyn) I had clear pre-conceived ideas that we might be wasting our time and my thoughts seemed to be confirmed when a resident, wearing a rather dirty string vest, ran after me crying “I’ve been waiting for you to call” in what I took to be a rather menacing manner. Expecting a fist being lunged in my direction (the Conservative Government had, after all, closed most of the coal mines in the vicinity) I was completely surprised when he thrust some grubby bank notes in my hand asking me to accept this as a donation towards our fighting fund.  He went on to explain that he had been unhappy about his membership of his Trade Union and their political stance which had been supported by the local incumbent MP which he blamed primarily for the closure of the mines.

The essence of these stories, both examples from my own life’s experience, is that we can sometimes have pre-conceived ideas which prove to be totally wrong and we can also retell stories or narratives differently or with embellishment.  I am sure I have probably rather overembellished the Maesteg story over time – it might even have been a different Welsh village in the constituency but the message remains the same.

In examining our Gospel reading this morning – John’s account of the calling of Simon Peter as one of Jesus’s disciples, differs somewhat from that of the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke who each have Jesus walking along the edge of the Sea of Galilee and calling Simon Peter  away from his labours as a fisherman.  John seems to have inserted “Scarborough” into our Skegness rock.  To what extent does that matter to the essential message of the narrative?

When I was young my mother taught me that first impressions counted for much – the way you dressed and spoke in particular.  It is the reason that today, although I was brought up in a northern fishing town on the Humber Estuary, I do not speak with a guttural Grimbarian accent.  When I was on the circuit looking for a Parliamentary seat to fight I recall one member of the selection committee in Brighton telling me that she didn’t take into account much of the content of the speeches made – her choice would be largely based on whether the candidate had nicely polished shoes!  After that I would always ensure that I could see my face in my own shoes!

John the Baptist based his pronouncement that Jesus was the Messiah by his observation of of “a dove descending and remaining” on a man who had come to be baptised with the strong belief that the dove represented the Holy Spirit. On the basis of this first impression he proclaimed that Jesus is the one on who is the Messiah – the one who will go on to baptize with the Holy Spirit. That Jesus is indeed the Son of God.

Jesus was from that moment a marked individual and it was two of John’s own disciples who, with John, saw Jesus pass by when John exclaimed “Look here is the Lamb of God” and we read that immediately the two disciples left John and followed Jesus to his lodgings.  Such must have been the strength of John’s claim for them to leave being one of his disciples and following Jesus to find out more.

When then have one of the most interesting and I think important phrases in the New Testament.  John’s disciples having attracted Jesus’s attention ask him where he is staying and Jesus gives that wonderful phrase “Come and See”.  An invitation to come, of their own volition and spend some time with Jesus. Indeed, from the passage we learn that they spent the rest of the day with him no doubt trying to find out whether those first impressions of their late master John were indeed accurate.

Towards the end of the passage we learn from the gospeller that one of the two erstwhile disciples of John was Andrew, a fisherman himself, and that he went afterwards to his brother, Simon Peter, to tell him that they had found the Messiah.  When then read that when Simon was brought into the presence of Jesus he was told by Jesus that he would thereafter be known Cephas or Peter meaning rock.

So, let’s analyse the sequence of events and see how they fit in with our own faith.  Essentially there are four stages in this story which, I think, we are meant to follow in our own Faith.  As Christians, we are meant to be evangelical whenever we can and our Church missional.  I am a firm believer in that.

The four stages are “Come, See, tell, repeat”.  The gospel passage is one of witness – John’s witnessing of the dove descending on Jesus as the Holy Spirit and the disciples witnessing what Jesus has to tell them during their hours together. Clearly what was said impressed Andrew sufficient to bring his brother Simon Peter to see him.  And so, the first stage of “come” is about taking the first step in answering Jesus’s invitation to spend time with him. He calls us, today, to do just that.  It is an invitation, not an order, and we can choose whether to answer that call or not but if we do not then we can be missing out on something really good and powerful.  The second stage, after having come into the presence of Jesus, is to see what he has to offer.  We do not know specifically what was spoken about in those hours in Jesus’s lodgings, or what they saw, but it had a powerful influence on their decision to leave John and become disciples of Christ.

The third stage, is to tell others as accurately as we can. To recount that first impression of Jesus which those two disciples had during that first meeting. Likewise, when we have been in the presence of Jesus we need to have the courage to tell others how we felt and what impressions we had when we felt ourselves in the presence of Jesus. 

Finally, to impress on others the importance of repeating the narrative just as we should ourselves repeat it to as many people as possible.

Now we know, from the examples I gave earlier, that the narrative can vary depending upon memory and recollections.  Indeed, quite recently, an important institution in this country used the term “It has to be accepted that people’s recollections of events may not always be the same” but we should try, always, to do our best to be as accurate as possible – our stick of rock.

The important thing here is, though, like Andrew, we are expected to spread the good news and not keep it to ourselves.  Jesus later on in his ministry at the Sermon on the Mount asked his congregation “what good is there in having a bright light and then hiding it under a bowl” (Matthew 5:14-16).  He was alluding to this very point.

So to conclude – we can take away three important points from this passage:

First of all, first impressions can count and we should accept our emotions and feelings when Jesus calls us

Secondly, we should obey his invitation to “come and see” for ourselves what he has to offer

Thirdly, we should tell and repeat our experiences of the good news to others.

We can then be part of a truly missional church of God.

 

 Amen                                                                                                  MFB/12012023/181

 

SERMON 180 - SUNDAY 8 JANUARY 2023

SERMON AT WINTERSLOW ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH, MORNING WORSHIP

– SUNDAY 8 JANUARY 2023 – EPIPHANY

Isaiah 60:1-6;  Ephesians 3:1-12;  Matthew 2:1-12

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may my words be a blessing to all who listen to them.

I guess it won’t be a surprise to many of you that our Gospel reading this morning is one of my favourites for quite a number of reasons!

First of all, it describes an astronomical event that happened over 2,000 years ago, and secondly, whenever we had the school nativity play I always wanted to be one of the “kings” wearing a crown rather than a shepherd or heaven forbid, the donkey!  That probably says more about me and my aspirations for life rather than anything else. I usually ended up as a shepherd – there was no limit on the number they needed!

The story, though, has always captivated me and led me to ask more questions than I have ever received answers.  Who were these wise men?  Where did they come from? Were they really “kings” or just rich merchants? What is clear is that they must have been well educated and therefore probably quite rich.  In all probability they had servants and possibly even astrologers, or may have been astrologers themselves, who kept tabs on what was happening in the cosmos.

Here for a moment I must digress, slightly to explain the difference between astrology and astronomy. Only last week someone referred to me, on our Walk and Worship morning, as an astrologer. So, for the avoidance of any doubt, whilst I do study the heavens (both from a theological and astronomical perspective) I do not tell fortunes.  Astronomy is the study of celestial objects from a purely scientific point of view – what they are, where they are, how they are composed, how they were formed, how they will develop, and above all establishing the composition and dimensions of the universe.  Astrology, on the other hand is the “fake or false science” (in my view at least) of the study of how these phenomena affect our lives. 

Astrology, back then, therefore, was primarily for the purpose of trying to understand what might happen to us here on earth, both individually and corporately.  Monarchs and leaders would consult astrologers to establish whether the stars were auspicious to embark upon certain ventures such as going to war, or entering into alliances or even marrying; and although I talk of it as a false science, modern astronomers have to be grateful for the ancient astrologers (not those who write horoscopes in the press) but those learned individuals whose role it was to study the heavens to provide this information to decision makers. This is because they made and recorded meticulous observations in ancient texts which have led to astronomers being able to predict, for example, the orbital period of solar system objects such as planets and comets. 

Comets in particular were considered to be messengers from the Heavens – often associated with doom and gloom.  WE now know, for example, that the comet depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry was that most famous of all comets – Halley’s Comet – because it was worked out that the same comet re-appeared every 76 years and that it would have been in the sky in 1066.

So, back in the days of the Nativity, there must have been something rather unusual in the sky to attract the attention of these three wise astrologers, as I think we must call them. I am sure that they would not have mistaken the planets Venus, Jupiter or Saturn for this unusual apparition but it is clear that it moved – just as the planets do – indeed the word planet means “wanderer” because they appear to move relative to the fixed stars. That would rule out a Supernova for instance (that is a bright exploding star).

There are therefore, I think, three plausible explanations therefore, in my view. One is that there was a special conjunction of two or more planets similar to that which we saw two years ago with Jupiter and Saturn, or second, that it was a comet (and there is indeed some evidence for both of these conjectures) or that it was truly an amazing inexplicable phenomenon.  Many paintings, such as Giotto’s “Adoration of the Magi”, depict the Star of Bethlehem as a flaming comet. It was for this reason that the space probe sent up to intercept and study Halley’s Comet was called “Giotto”.  I am convinced, therefore, from a purely scientific point of view, that the most likely culprit is a comet. Comets tend to travel through our skies slowly and when they reach the sun they will “disappear” from view for a while to reappear as they begin their travel back into the outer realms of our solar system. We read that the wise men halted their journey at Jerusalem and that the star reappeared. As to it stopping over the birthplace of Jesus, I cannot give an explanation except that it may very well have dimmed or arrived close to a bright fixed star.  We shall never know for certain.  I was very fortunate to receive a book this Christmas entitled “The Great Christ Comet” which claims to reveal the true star of Bethlehem.  I haven’t yet read it but maybe, if you invite me back to preach here next year, I’ll have some further theories.

Well, I hear you think, that’s all very erudite and scientific, but where is the theology in this sermon or is it a lecture? 

First of all, we don’t know whether to story is true or not.  Interestingly, the Three Wise Men appear in only one of the synoptic gospels – Matthew.  Neither Mark, the quick-fire gospeller, nor Luke, the more loquacious writer, make any reference at all to these figures. Of course, following on from the passage read this morning, we then encounter the horror of the Massacre of the Innocent and it is interesting to note that Herod’s Decree was for all male children under the age of 2 years which suggests that the Wise Men may very well have arrived well after Christ’s birth itself.  It is only our Nativity narratives which have placed the “kings” with the shepherds in the stable/barn.

For me, the essence of the story and why Matthew included it in his account of the birth od Christ is that the Wise Men were seen to come from a far away place.  They were not Jewish but we are told “came from the East”.  Indeed, the famous carol begins with “We three kings from Orient are”. The significance then is that the birth of Jesus was not an event solely for the Jewish people.  He wasn’t just the Jewish Messiah, the person who would save the Jews from their oppressors, but that he had come into the world to save all Humankind. It was a sign, just as was the “star” to proclaim the dawn of Christianity throughout the world – to all who would come to believe and worship him.  We are told that the wise men brought a gift each – symbols of Christ’s status and mission on Earth – gold, as he was to be regarded as a king – ruler of the Kingdom of Heaven, frankincense – a spiritual leader of all people and myrrh, that bitter perfume used in the embalming of bodies to signify that he would die for us on the Cross to save us from our sins.

The final piece of the story, which intrigues me, is that of the dream which warned them that Herod had tried to trick them in going back and telling him where Jesus was, so that he might slaughter him.  Herod was fearful that his authority, and indeed his Crown, would be usurped by this infant “King of the Jews”.

It has always struck me how dreams play such a large part in biblical narratives – both Old and New Testament - Joseph, Daniel, Joseph the Carpenter, Paul, Peter were all great dreamers who received messages from God through dreams.

A lot of people have said to me that they have never heard God speaking to them. Well, maybe like me, you have not received an auditory communication – a voice speaking to you – but just like those radio telescopes listening to the noise of the Cosmos, something which we can’t hear without the use of special equipment, so too God can communicate to us through other means – dreams being one of them.  As with radio telescopes, we need to distinguish between background earthly noise and sounds coming from the distant universe. So to we need to distinguish between our own thought and those coming from God.  Samuel was convinced that God’s voice was that of the priest Eli.

So, the message of this passage is, I think, to remind us of these three basic things:

·       Jesus was born for all Humankind, not just the Jewish people

·       To remind us, by the three gifts of his status and mission – as king, priest and sacrifice

·       Of God’s love and creation literally universal.

 

 Amen                                                                                                  MFB/05012023/180

SERMON 179 - SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER 2022

 SERMON AT FARLEY ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH, MORNING WORSHIP

– SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER 2022 – ADVENT 3

Isaiah 35:1-10;  James 5:7-10;  Matthew 11:2-11 (incorporating parts of Sermon 178)

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may my words be a blessing to all who listen to them.

Today we lit the third Advent candle known as the Candle of John the Baptist or Candle of Joy reminding us of the proclamation of John the Baptist that it wasn’t him who was the long-expected Messiah but the one who now appeared before him to be baptised by him in the Jordan.

But, we are ahead of ourselves for, like last week, we must return to the period of the Babylonian Exile and the words of that great prophet of that time, Isaiah, from whom we heard in our first reading this morning. Many of the prophesies, at that time, related specifically to the Jews’ return to the Holy Land and the rebuilding of the Temple.  However, the prophesies of Isaiah go well beyond just this more immediate restoration but look to a time when the Jewish people’s long-awaited Messiah will appear – a prophesy and proclamation well ahead of John the Baptist’s!

For many centuries after Isaiah, the Jewish people looked upon many candidates for their Messiah as is recorded in the Apocrypha – those books which plug the gap between Malachi in the Old Testament and Matthew in the NewTestament – which are usually excluded from most copies of the bible.

So, for many Jews, the period of waiting was very long indeed and we read in the Book of Malachi how the people, including the priests, were indolent or casual in their worship of God.  Their Faith had become stale because nothing seemed to be happening and their prayers not being answered. We read how they offered defective goods as burnt sacrifices and kept the best for themselves.  Their worship was half-hearted and lacking in conviction.

Isaiah, though, tells the Jewish people that “the wilderness and dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like crocus it shall blossom abundantly.”  This is a reference to those dry stagnant times described in Malachi when the Jewish people thought that they were in a time of wilderness. Perhaps we feel a bit like that too as we see the world in turmoil and the difficulties facing our own country at this time of challenge.

Isaiah gives encouragement to his readers or listeners by telling them that something great and wonderful will occur in the fullness of time and that God’s glory shall be revealed and “he shall come and save you”.  What wonderful words of joy and encouragement after many years of captivity in Babylon.

I think I know how it must feel. Twelve month’s ago I was in much despair facing several months of treatment for a medical condition which my father had died with.  I was at a very low ebb facing my own mortality despite reassurances from doctors and family.  A year on, only last week in fact, I was informed that the illness had completely left my body and that I was now a “picture of health”. I had done as my medical professionals had advised me, taken the treatment, adjusted my lifestyle, lost weight and increased my exercise but in addition to all that I had also prayed and asked for prayer.  I am utterly convinced that in addition to the wonderful treatment I received the power of prayer also contributed.  The consultant was incredibly impressed by the speed of my recovery and did say that she has found that those with a Faith often heal quicker than those without one. 

This is the message, then of both Isaiah and john the Baptist.  John went around preaching the baptism of repentance by which Jews could seek atonement for their sins.  The actual washing in the river, the baptism, was an outward sign to others that they had truly turned away from evil and washed away their sins. Hence John the Baptist called for people to repent.  You will recall, although it does not appear in today’s gospel reading, that the Messiah, Jesus, would baptise in the fire and spirit – i.e. not simply an outward symbolic gesture of water cleansing the body but that, inwardly, people would receive the fire of the Holy Spirit as we will see later at Pentecost.

Of course, we do read at the beginning of the gospel passage today that John, having heard of the ministry of Jesus from his prison cell, was still not entirely sure whether he was the true Messiah – God’s chosen.  Had his own ministry been in vain, he must have wondered. There had been so many pretenders in the Apocrypha as I mentioned earlier and the Jews seemed to have been waiting for a very long time – time for them to be overrun and occupied by stronger nations culminating with their absorption into the Roman Empire. They must have really been feeling that God had left them to flounder. Jesus’s response to those disciples of John was that they should report back all that he was doing – the deaf hearing, the blind seeing, the dead being raised, the poor hearing good news and so on. He had lived, but only just as we know from the story, to know of the coming of the True Messiah.

In our Second Reading, James in his letter, to the Jewish diaspora implores them to be patient in their waiting for the Lord to return.  He uses the example of the farmer waiting for his crop to grow, waiting for the rains to arrive.  Our house backs onto a field of various arable crops and it always amazes me how the crop develops from a muddy field into small shoots, then tall shoot and eventually the ears of corn or maize or whatever and are then harvested.  Year in, year out this occurs with me, in the early days, wondering what the seeds just sown will develop into.

Advent is a time of waiting.  It is a time of expectation. It is a time of preparation and it can also be a time of healing.

A word used a lot by theologians is “liminal”.  It is a word I wasn’t all that familiar with until I started my training as a minister and later, even more so, as a spiritual director.  I knew of its devolved word “subliminal” better in the context of “subliminal messages” – those being messages which are conveyed to you, often in adverts, which are not in the forefront but hidden and conveyed very subtly. A classic one is the smell of bread upon entering the supermarket making you feel hungry and thereby probably putting more foodstuffs in your trolley than you intended!

“Liminal” means “on the edge” or “on the threshold”.  It has been described as the “no longer, but not yet”. It derives from the same root a lintel – that stone that you find above a door separating the outside from the inside – neither itself wholly inside nor wholly outside..  Likewise being in a liminal place means we are ourselves are in the “no longer and not yet” place. That is really where Advent is too. We are “no longer” in a place of despair not knowing if and when our Saviour is coming but in the not yet knowing that it will not be long. Of course, today we know that Jesus has been and we also know, those who believe that is, that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive today seated with God in Heaven and will return. Now we await his second coming and so we are today still in a liminal space with the exception that Jesus and thereby God can be manifested by the Holy Spirit – that same Spirit that John the Baptist promised the Messiah would baptise us in.  

How many of us long for that now?  We live with ever increasing tensions in a world with much hostility towards our fellow humans. We only have to look at what is happening in Ukraine today. We would do well to go back and read the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament and recall how Jesus told those in the synagogue that he had come to fulfil the laws and the prophesies not to tear them up. It is no coincidence that the passage Jesus read in the synagogue in Galilee was from Isaiah’s prophesy.

I cannot end this short homily better than by repeating the words of Paul at the end of last week’s reading and by recommending that whenever we feel lost or lonely in our Faith or want to tell others about it, these words may be a blessing and encouragement to us and those around us who need to hear the Good News –

“May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

So let us look upon our Third Candle today with the joy which represents. The joy of the knowledge that Jesus remains with us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Amen                                                                                                  MFB/09122022/179