Advent day 16 - Lighten our darkness...

Do you ever have a really deep seated sense of longing? A yearning, almost an aching? Something tangible, physical.  For some of us it might be for someone we love when we are apart from them. For some of us it might be for a particular place or landscape. For others of us still it might be for a time in the future when things will be different, better, fairer, freer, more just. That sense of just not being complete unless we are there in that place, in that time with that person.

This is the sound that Advent should ring long and deep within our hearts; that insistent tolling, reminding us that with God, the best is yet to come. Things can only get better - and no not in a glib, political, well advertised, slick sort of a way, but one where the fabric of our world is transformed by God and the topography of our innermost souls is transfigured. Change is coming.

The royal purple cloak of Advent, symbolising the coming of God as King and our need of Him because of our brokenness is lightened by the bright beams of hope especially today - hence the pink - rejoice, celebrate, be happy, the change you long and yearn for is coming!

This is the message of John the Baptist to us. But John is significant, not because of what he is, but because of what he’s not.

What is important about John is not his political or religious significance but rather his lack of significance. What is denied about John is extraordinary: he was not the light, he is not the Christ, he is not Elijah, he is not the prophet, he is untrustworthy to untie the sandal of the one coming after him, whilst he baptises with water the one coming after him will baptise with the Holy Spirit, he is not the bridegroom, he must increase so I can decrease. The subordination of John to Jesus shows how important it is that we get their relationship straight. John’s significance is gained only by being one chosen and sent by God to point toward the the One who would bring in God’s long yearned for change.

The other thing we know about John is that he is a witness and gives testimony. This is language of the law court, and in Advent, a trial is underway.  But it is not Jesus who is on trial but us, our world, it’s leaders, our drives and motives, our lives and lifestyles, our choices. As God comes amongst us, returning as a longed for lover, are we still the people He fell in love with at the first moment of Creation?

Did you see the moon on Friday night? Round beautiful and full. It was one of those rare occasions where it feels so close that you could almost reach out and grab it. In areas without too much light polution, the effect was apparently quite stunning – and the amazing thing about the moon, of course, is that of itself it has no light at all.  The moon shines only with the reflected light of the sun.

And here John the Baptist stands as the moon, to the sun that is Jesus.  He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness to that light.  Like Friday’s moon, he shone more brightly that those who had gone before him, but he was not that light.  He bore witness because he too shone with reflected glory….and he was in no doubt that his role in the gospel was not centre stage. In the account we have just heard, John is not called "the Baptist". The emphasis is on his witness.  His calling was to be a sign, pointing the way to Jesus.

Jesus’ coming demands a decision on our part. His signs are too powerful to ignore. He is either at least a prophet or a false prophet who must die. He claims authority which is Gods, and therefore is either a blasphemer and deserves death - or he speaks the truth.

The moon’s light comes from the sun. Similarly John refers us still to Jesus. Like the sun, light, Jesus, shines, and is either welcome as it shows goodness and Godness in our lives; or it is unwelcome as it exposes things in our lives and reveals us as we really are.

John is a witness to the truth of all that God is doing in and through Jesus. We need to decide for ourselves who He is. As we stand on the cusp of a soft focus crib scene - who will this baby grow to be? C.S Lewis put it well...

‘...I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to...’

John’s testimony to who Jesus is, challenges us still to react - who is he? The intrusion of Light into the world will not leave things as they are - we must decide. Our decision puts everything at stake...

Advent Day 11

He was a young man, caught in the web of drug addiction. She was the pharmacist who with genuine love and care dispensed the daily dose of Methadone to people yearning to break free from the effects of drugs. He shared with her his desire to re-order his life, to become free of the paralysing effects of addiction. His spoke of his hope for a new beginning. Suddenly he stopped coming. She wondered about him. Where was he? She watched and waited but he never returned.

Years passed. One day her son invited a friend home for an evening meal. When she opened the door, standing before her was the young man of earlier years. Healthy and well, he now worked as a social worker with others caught in the grip of addiction. He shared how her words, like an arrow, had struck his heart, opening him to reform, freedom and hope.

John the Baptist, the arrow in God’s quiver, waited in the wilderness. At the appointed time he was sprung forth from God’s bow. John pointed a people who lived in dread and uncertainty to a greater power and a greater love revealed in the person of Jesus.

Can you find yourself among the many people who went out to meet and welcome John’s message? What might John say to you?

In what way this week might you become the arrow in God’s hand, the messenger calling people to hope and love and to the reform of social injustices?

Taken from the marvellous and inspiring Sacred Space site

Advent day 10: The Word as as Wordle

Here is the word cloud I made of this Sunday's Gospel read ing which you can read by clicking here

Advent day 8: The Gospel According to L'Oreal

We live in an immediate world - instant food, instant info available on the internet, instant winners with our lottery mentality. What we want, we want now and we are not prepared to wait for it. We are encouraged to live for ourselves, to live in the now, to live as if no-one else mattered - and we reinforce this mentality when we begin to take seriously advertising stap lines that say things like ‘Because you’re worth it!’

Yet for most of us right at the moment, very little, in reality, is instant. We may not instantly get a pay rise, we may not instantly get a job, we may not instantly be able to afford the new TV or foreign holiday, the bank may not instantly extend our overdraft. Yet we expect our, our nation’s and our world’s ills to be sorted out in the blink of an eye - and we don’t like it much when they seemingly can’t be, because you’re worth it! You and I deserve so much more, so much better. Don’t we. Don’t we?

This morning’s Gospel reading comes from Mark’s Gospel. It’s a very 21st century account of Jesus’ life - it’s short and instant. It doesn’t faff around with stories of angels, babies, shepherds and visiting wise men. It cuts straight to the chase. Mark, almost understanding our need for instant answers even tells us that what he’s about to write is about Jesus, whom he names right at the beginning as the Messiah, the Son of God. This is no slow burning page turner. Mark has shown us the last page of the book right at the beginning - Jesus is God’s chosen one come to transform us and our world.

Then bam! Immediately we are flung into the wilderness with this odd man John the Baptist calling people to repent through baptism. To change their lives, before the coming of another person. We know that this other person is Jesus, who’s coming we are in the midst of preparing for and at this time of year we are in the midst of (frenetically) readying our homes and our lives for Christmas.

John called people then, and us this Advent, to repentance. Repentance is so much more than being really really sorry. It involves imagining something you regret and imagining it as an object in the middle of the road and you are walking towards it. Repentance is acknowledging that it’s there, and then walking away from it, resolving never to go there again. In our immediate world, this is hard as it’s something we cannot rush mostly because it is something we probably want to avoid it altogether. We do not like change. Certainly not this sort of change.  It is much easier to make excuses and continue on business as usual. It takes time and courage to even realise that things could and should be better. This morning, this Advent, John encourages us to change our lives in readiness for the coming of Christ, because it is only He who can change our hearts by the power of His Holy Spirit. Repentance is not walking away in failure thinking we cannot do it. Repentance is profoundly hopeful - it is about acknowledging that where we cannot and when we cannot change, God can.

My experience is though, if you scratch beneath the surface, all of us do want change. We want better homes, lives, cars, jobs, livelihoods, better fitness, better looks, a better world in which to live, better politics, better hospitals, better schools, better relationships with our family and friends and so on - and we want it now. Peace in nations begins with peace in people.  Free nations begins with free people.  Liberation of lands and political systems begins with liberating the human heart, and all of that can only come in time, in God’s time.

John met people in the wilderness - not a desert but a place with few resources, but a place where people had to rely on God, where they met him, often powerfully. In the 4th Century there were many Christians who withdrew to the wilderness to find God. Some of them became wise leaders and were referred to as “Abba”. One such Abba lived high in the mountains and a young man wished to be taught by him and so set off early to find the Abba. He climbed for hours to reach the cave in the mountain and when he arrived he found the cave with few possessions, but amongst them were a water jug and bowl. The Abba didn’t acknowledge him but was silent in prayer so the young man sat down and waited. One hour passed, and then another and then another. He became frustrated and worried that he would have to return home soon before it became dark, so he said “Abba, are you not going to teach me anything?” The Abba arose and poured water from the jug into the bowl and said “What do you see?” The young man looked into the bowl and replied “I see dirty water”. The Abba fell silent again for another hour and then repeated the question “What do you see?” The young man looked into the bowl again and replied “I see my face.”

We can’t do anything about answering John’s call to repentance until we see ourselves as we really are, until we realise that we need God to make us to be the people He and we long to be, deep down.  In doing that, we open ourselves up to the one who is to come, the one whom John didn’t feel worthy to be even in the presence of, the one by whose Holy Spirt even our hearts can be changed - Jesus - who can transform us from the inside out - because He believes we’re worth it. Amen.

h/t to Lesley for some pointers and hints in this sermon....

Advent day 7 - The word as a wordle for Advent II

Tomorrow's Gospel reading from Mark 1:1-8 as a word cloud...

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

   “I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”—
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”

 4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

The key to the good news about Jesus the Messaiah the Son of God, begins with recognising that we are not the centre of the universe, that we are not all that matters. As we stumble through the spiritual and emotional wilderness that our lives so often are, we are confronted, by God, with our deepest longings - to be made new, to be better people.

Advent is not self-help in spiritual clothing. Advent is about us getting our house in order as far as we are each able, but God doing the rest.

Presents or Pressence?

Advent 3

13th December 2009

Luke 3:7-18

It is hard for me, at this time of year not to look back to events of four years ago and to recall the events of 6.01 am on 11th December 2005 - the date and time of the Buncefield explosion. Despite four long years elapsing, it fills me with anger that those responsible are only just beginning to be held to account and that those affected most are still trying to piece their lives together and move on. None of my feelings are about retribution but they are about public, upfront reform and justice.

It is also hard for me, at the end of week one of the UN Climate Summit, not to look forward with hope and expectancy to the outcome of these crucial talks. I told you when I was last here that I hoped to attend The Wave. With a few others we gathered with 50,000 others last Saturday in London, and my hope and prayer as I marched was to show the world’s leaders that they need to act with courage and justice for the world and her peoples both now and in the future.

John the Baptist who we meet again this morning, seems to be fueled by similar anger, calls for reform and justice. John preaches about ethical reform, about lifestyle change. Yes his message is both personal and political. John says step up folks, change your ways, because God is coming with justice. Get ready... God is coming!

Now that is surely good news. God is coming! Change your lives! Change the Government! Change the economic system! Save the planet! But I am also suddenly brought up short by John. He’s talking to me. I am the crowd not Total or HOSL, or the banking sector, or our politicians. I don’t much like being lumped in with others as a brood of vipers. A snake in the grass. It is all to easy to lose sight of what John really says - change your life Simon because God is coming. You are a snake in the grass, you are a viper. You lie low with others colluding. Yes you have a poisonous bite.

Yes you Simon, are you growing into a healthy tree? Are there visible signs of God at work in your life? Are you bearing fruit, because if you aren’t, the axe is lying at the foot of the tree... Oh and don’t kid yourself that you are ok because you wear a dog collar and say all the right things in church - God can provide all the dog collars and people to fill churches he likes. What about you Simon? Well? How in all God’s earth is that good news? This Gospel is not about them and us, there is not a sheep or goat in sight. It is a Gospel about us not about the institutions and how corrupt they may be. John reminds us not to lose sight of the vision we started with this Advent - long for the world to be different and for God to transform it, but it begins with me.




John’s hearers are as bewildered with this other-worldly message as I am. What should we do? His message can be summed up in one word - repent. Do not live the way you have been, but seek to live out the justice of God in ways that can be tangibly seen and experienced - share out of your wealth, with those who have less than you - if you have two coats, give one to someone who doesn’t. If you have food, share it with someone who does not. Repentance should be visible and should cost us something.

Our natural inclaination is to recoil from John’s suggested lifestyle. This is not about supporting DENS or giving to Christian Aid. This is about demonstrating that we are ready for God’s coming. By living a repentant life, not only do we willingly choose to favour and support the poor and needy and live out Kingdom values, we outwardly demonstrate to the One who comes almost unseen amongst as a baby that we are ready to receive his judgement on us.

Hmmm... that doesn’t sound much like good news. First he calls me a viper, and now I should live like a paper... The good news that John proclaims is that the change we long for is coming in Christ, the babe of Bethlehem. He comes transforming judgement. When someone says to you this week, ‘Are you ready for Christmas?’ they mean, have you got all the trimmings ready - cards sent, presents bought and wrapped, turkey ordered etc. But with only 12 days to go, are you really ready for Christmas says John?

This morning, John reminds us that Advent is not about readying ourselves for Christmas - all turkey, crackers, parties and presents, but that Advent is about God and His presence in our lives and in the world. Are we really ready for that, for,

‘..He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire...’

12 days to go, are we ready with presents or His presence?