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Sermon for
Proper 18 - Trinity 15 - Evening 4.9.2016
Isaiah
43. 14 - 44.5
John 5. 30 - end
You will all be aware by now
that I enjoy watching - and drooling - at the Great British Bake
Off. I'm sure some of you do too? But how often do we see someone
- who one week looked so promising and sure of themselves, come
a cropper on something apparently fairly straightforward? Often
it can be because - although they have been asked to produce
something reasonably obvious and well known, they cannot resist
- in an effort to impress - introducing some weird and wonderful
flavours or other ingredients? Of course, to some extent, this
is the essence of the programme - so maybe I am being a bit
hard on them, but I think what Jesus is referring to in our second
reading this evening, has something of this failing about it.
Others have written that you
can often see in any group of people (the bakeoff contestants,
a class at school, or a football team) a tendency to want to
impress each other, rather than focus on the words of instruction.
Now supposing, instead of Mary Berry - or a teacher, a sports
coach or similar, you have none other than God, the living, patient,
loving, wise God, who has called a people to belong to himself
so that through them he could reveal his glory to the world.
And suppose this people are so please with themselves and their
calling, that they spend their time trying to impress each other
with their piety and attention to the law, rather than trying
to please God. That is the charge that Jesus, solemnly and sorrowfully,
levels against his contemporaries. When he comes to his own -
and they do not accept him.
The Jewish Law told a story
which came to its climax in Jesus. It pointed to the ideal for
human life, and to God's provision of sacrifice for human sin.
Not so that people could boast of how successfully they had accomplished
it all, but to point to the Messiah, God's anointed, the truly
human being. The lamb of God who would take away the sin of the
world.
Jesus' charge is thus that
the people have been looking at the right book (the right recipe),
but reading it the wrong way. - And we can think of lots of ways
in which we have changed our corporate minds about what the Bible
does and does not say.
Once people were quite happy
that the Bible condoned slavery - and there is a legitimate reading
that can appear to say this. People still argue about what the
Bible has to say about the role of women in the home and in public
life - and in leading worship! Well, we know that there are still
some who would argue about this - but the vast majority have
come to accept it as perfectly normal to have someone like me
leading a church...
Today the church is again split
with argument around the vexed question of sexuality - and it
may yet decide that a more permanent schism is inevitable. I
hope not - and I really think that God is much more concerned
with the quality of our relationships - are they life-giving
and affirming?, or are they abusive and damaging?, rather than
the gender of the object of our affections and source of our
consolation.
This weekend one of our Bishops
has finally admitted that he is gay and in a committed relationship.
(And there are probably others .... there always have been!)
This may be difficult for some to hear, but I for one want to
respond, so what?! It has nothing to do with whether or not he
is an effective priest; whether he is a good and pastoral bishop
to his clergy and people and I have heard nothing to suggest
otherwise. As Archbishop Justin has said, our identity certainly
includes our sexuality, but we are not defined by it - our prime
identity is that which we have in the person of Jesus Christ.
The Bible is the most fascinating
book, or collection of books, in the world. Anyone who with a
feel for literature, for ideas, for history, for great stories,
can become completely absorbed in it. It provokes academic discussions
that can be fascinating, exhilarating, challenging and stimulating.
And I am sure that God wants us to continue studying it - to
allow yet more light to break from its pages.
But it is possible to allow
the study of the text, and of its various interpretations, to
become a substitute for allowing the text to bring us into the
presence of the living God. That is as true today as it was in
the time of Jesus. Maybe we have complicated the basic recipe
too much? What is the taste and the texture we have been asked
to produce?
This is not to say that we
leave our minds behind when we read the text, and simply have
nice warm feelings about Jesus. On the contrary, to read the
Bible in the light of Jesus the Christ means more thought, not
less. But this thought must always be ready to pass into personal
knowledge - to our experience of our lives as they are lived
and of real humanity - and from there to adoration of God, into
prayer - and then back again to the Scriptures that inspire and
inform us.
I heard this week of someone
who rescued a relationship that was about to founder completely,
just by deciding to start each day be asking his partner "what
can I do for you to make your day better?" - and whatever
he was asked to do, he got on and did it without argument or
quibble.
Initially his partner was pretty
scornful - (they had not been getting on at all well) but eventually
as it became apparent that this new behaviour was not insincere
or going to stop, the responses became less argumentative and
the level of trust and affection between them re-grew until they
had repaired and even improved the nature of their marriage.
What difference might it make
to our world I wonder if just a few of us were to ask God each
day, "Lord, show me what I can do for you today, that will
make life just a little better?" Would that not put the
love of God back in our hearts? Amen.
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