kneel in wonder at heaven touching earth» Advent

In Your Midst

Paul Sibley — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:00:58 +0000

I was on duty for Evensong in Godmanchester again on Sunday. If I were more confident with thinking on my feet, I would have probably tried to do a different sermon. I had decided to do something based on the Old Testament lesson, rather than the New Testament lesson which I most frequently preach from — don’t really know why now, yesterday’s NT lesson was the Magnificat!

About 30 minutes before the service I had an awful feeling that I was preaching the ‘wrong’ sermon — a feeling that never left me. I was a bit croaky with the singing too, which didn’t help. I just hope and pray that God will have been able to speak to people despite my presence getting in the way, especially as we had a couple of people in the congregation we don’t usually see, one who’s only just moved into Godmanchester.

Here, for what it’s worth, is the sermon more or less as preached.

In Your Midst
‘Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord.’ Zechariah 2:10

Here all along
Have you ever searched for something you’d lost, and hunted all over the house, only to discover it was right there where you’d been sitting? ‘It was right here all along,’ you cry in exasperation. ‘How could I have missed it? Right under my nose!’

One particular time something like it happened to me often comes to mind, probably because it was so silly! I was doing my school homework, which rather dates it. I’d been busy writing, then stopped to read it back. When I wanted to write some more I couldn’t find my pen. I searched high and low for it, even in places it couldn’t possibly be. It was nowhere to be found.

The only thing I could do was get another pen, and use that to carry on with my homework. Next time I paused to read what I’d written, I put the pen down carefully — I didn’t want to lose another one.

When I was ready to start writing again, I took the pen I’d been chewing on out of mouth — yes, the first pen; it was, quite literally, right under my nose!

It often happens, whether you’re looking for something small or something big, that what you’re looking for has been under your nose all the time, only you didn’t see it.

People travel to oriental lands to study mysticism and meditation, and then they find that there’s a great history of these things in European Christianity, only they didn’t know about it. People travel to far-off places in search of mental peace and healing, when they could have found it by staying at home and learning to relax.

People go on pilgrimages to find somewhere where their prayers will be answered, and discover that God’s invisible presence has been with them throughout the journey. Particularly when looking for God, what we’re searching for is often found to have been here all along.

Transcendence
Yet how can this be true, we wonder? Surely God is too great and wonderful to be found in as humble a place as my home!

And it’s true. God is transcendent, higher than the highest heavens, greater than the universe he made. The nature of God passes our understanding; our little minds can’t even begin to understand his greatness.

It’s a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God, because our sinful souls would shrivel up in the light of his moral purity. The immensity of the divine is displayed by the majesty of the mountains and the distances of space.

How can we even think about a transcendent God like that, let alone speak to him?

Good to talk
Yet the astonishing thing, which the Bible reveals, is that God wants us to speak to him. We could never have guessed that if God hadn’t told us so himself.

It’s good to talk — it builds up relationships. And it’s good to talk to God, because by prayer we learn to trust him, to depend on him, and to rely on him. By prayer we learn how much God loves us, and we learn to love God in return.

But how can we pray to a God who is greater than we can even imagine? The mind boggles at our presumption in even trying to speak to a transcendent God like that. It’s a real problem.

Incarnation
So God decided to do something about it. He wants us to hold on to our belief in his transcendence. But he wants us to learn that he’s close to us, as well.

So God decided to become one of us. The immeasurable God shrank himself, smaller and smaller, until all his transcendent greatness was contained in a foetus in the womb of a young woman in Nazareth.

When that baby was born, he wasn’t some mighty prince. The Creator of the universe became an ordinary, tiny baby, without even a proper roof over his head. Astonishing!

But that was how God wanted to show us that we can talk to God, in spite of his greatness. All we have to learn to do is speak to Jesus of Nazareth, a human being like us.

If we talk to Jesus, we’re talking to God. It’s as simple as that. The transcendence and the immanence of God are brought together in the God-Man of Galilee.

In your midst
God had promised in advance that he’d do this. Think of the promise of a child who’d be born and called Emmanuel, ‘God-is-with-us’. And in the prophet Zechariah (which we heard from in our Old Testament lesson this evening): ‘Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord’ (Zechariah 2:10).

We ought to have been ready for his coming. But instead we travel the globe looking for God, and scan the heavens with our telescopes hoping to find him. And God was there all along, right next to us, only we didn’t pay him any attention.

The Babe in the manger is the end of our quest. There in our midst. Only he seemed so ordinary that we didn’t even notice him.

God wants us to talk to him. And it isn’t difficult, because he’s right here listening for us to speak to him. ‘God was here all along,’ we cry in astonishment.’ How could I have missed him? Right under my nose, here in the midst of us!’

Mary waited for the birth of your Son

Paul Sibley — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 09:00:04 +0000

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Just a week to go and we’ll be celebrating, with Mary, the birth of the Christ-child. I wonder if we’re fully prepared: probably not, not here at least. I wonder if Mary was fully prepared: probably not.

I wonder what we human beings would’ve come up with, if we’d been left to arrange the birth of Jesus? Probably a committee to decide on the type of people who’d make the best parents, then a selection process and a short list until we arrived at the ideal couple. I don’t suppose an unmarried mother and her carpenter fiancé would have stood a chance. In many ways, Mary represents much that has been rejected by human beings throughout the ages. She was young, unmarried, and pregnant, and that not even by her fiancé.

At face value, the story surrounding the birth of Jesus is pretty sordid. But that’s because the God ingredient has been left out. Once the God ingredient is added to the story, everything changes. The circumstances are seen in a completely different light, and Mary, far from being the villain of the piece, is seen as the heroine. Once the God ingredient is added, there’s a total change in perceptions.

I wonder how many people at the time were aware of this change in perceptions? Fortunately Joseph, although a righteous man, was also a man open to God. He could hear God above the roaring of conventions, and so was able to respond when God suggested he move in an unconventional direction. Joseph dreamed about an angel, following which he was sure enough of himself to continue his relationship with Mary. Nothing in the circumstances had changed, only Joseph’s perceptions. But on the strength of a dream, he was prepared to accept a wife who on the face of things, may have been unfaithful to him.

The people chosen by God, and still being chosen today, to carry on his work can very often seem most unlikely. Clearly the selection criteria used by God are totally different to the selection criteria used by human beings. Somehow, God is able to see the potential within human beings long before it’s been realised, and to work with that potential.

God never rejects anyone. He uses the most unlikely people for his purposes, and works with them and through them so that their potential is realised and they change out of all recognition.

And if we, like Mary, are willing to be used by God, we only have to open our heart and mind and soul to him. God knows our potential, and will do the rest. All we human beings have to do, is to trust him and to dare to follow him.

Eternal God,
as Mary waited for the birth of your Son,
so we wait for his coming in glory;
bring us through the birth pangs of this present age
to see, with her, our great salvation
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Fourth Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

You sent John the Baptist to prepare the way

Paul Sibley — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:00:05 +0000

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent. It’s a day when we, traditionally, think about John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus’ coming at Christmas — now just two weeks away!

John the Baptist was a bit of a mystery man. He suddenly appeared in the wilderness, and nobody knew where he’d come from. He proclaimed a challenging message, telling people to make a fresh start. “Don’t rely on having been born a Jew,” he said in effect. “Repent” — which means change your attitude; “be baptised” — which means begin your life again as a child in the family of God. Then he warned them about a coming judgement, and told them to make up their minds before it’s too late. Who was he?

In the days when processions travelled at walking pace, a king would send someone running ahead to tell people they were coming. He was called the forerunner. “Get ready,” he’d cry. “The king’s coming, only about an hours travel behind me.” John said he was just a forerunner for Jesus: “Jesus is coming,” he cried out, “I’m just a voice telling you to get ready. And hurry up, there’s not much time left before he comes.” That’s who the mystery man was.

Perhaps we’ve got it all wrong about Christmas. It’s just two week away, and what have we done to get ready? Shopped until we’ve dropped? Bought expensive presents and decorations, and more food and drink than is good for us? And we probably haven’t finished yet!

Of course, if we believe that the Son of God came down to earth at Christmas to give his life to save us, we’ve really got something to celebrate, and giving things to other people is a good way to do it. But with that ought to go the spiritual preparation.

What’s John the Baptist saying to you and I today? “Make a fresh start. Don’t rely on having been born a Christian. Repent, change your attitude. Begin your life again as a child in the family of God. Make up your mind before it’s too late.” That’s how to get ready for Christmas. That’s how John the Baptist is, still today, preparing the way for Jesus to come into our lives afresh at Christmas. Are we listening?

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Third Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

I Waited Patiently for the Lord

Paul Sibley — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:00:49 +0000

It feels like an awfully long time since I’ve been able to lead Evensong and preach a sermon at Church. It’s about two and half months for the latter, and a month longer for the former. But there were a couple of early services, with sermons, between the two. Sunday evening I was able to do the full service, despite being a bit croaky (silly cold) — can’t have been much fun for the congregation. It was great to be able to do it again though. Here’s the sermon, more or less:

I Waited Patiently for the Lord
‘I waited patiently for the Lord : and he inclined unto me, and heard my calling.’
(Psalm 40:1 BCP)

Unanswered Prayer
Have you ever prayed desperately, asking God for something you really need, and nothing happened? I imagine the answer to that is probably, ‘Yes!’

You didn’t get the healing, or the job, or the partner you really wanted. Perhaps you began to ask yourself, ‘What’s all this that the Bible says about God answering prayer?’

But nowhere in the Bible are we promised that God’s answer to prayer will be immediate. He may not be ready yet, and God’s time is always best. God may know that you’re not ready yet, and he’ll give you what you need when you can make the best use of it.

God always answers prayer, but the answer may be ‘yes’; or ‘no’, because what you’ve asked for may not be what’s best for you; or it might even be ‘wait’.

Waiting
Advent is the season for waiting. We wait for Christmas, and, because of all the planning, and the shops starting to sell Christmas goods earlier every year, sometimes it seems as though it’ll never come.

Just think of all those people in the Old Testament who waited for the coming of the Messiah, and died without seeing his birth. Think of Simeon, the old priest who blessed baby Jesus in the Temple, and Anna the prophetess, who both spent all their lives waiting for God to show mercy to his people, and recognised in this tiny baby the answer to their prayers.

Who are we, then, if God’s answer to our prayers seems a long time coming? We must learn patience.

In our life
We wait for God to intervene in our own lives. God promised justice; why does he allow all the injustices in the world? God promised guidance; why do we flounder for so long in the mire of doubt and indecisiveness? God promised healing; so why do so many people fall sick, and die unhealed?

To all these questions, God answers, ‘Wait’. Wait patiently, and wait in hope. God will intervene, when he’s ready. It may not be in the way that you asked him to; and if you’re not alert, you may not recognize God at work when he comes to you.

But if you’re ready for the ‘God of surprises’ to do the unexpected, and willing to co-operate with him when he calls you to, there’s no limit to the good things you and God may be able to do together.

Then, if what you specifically asked for doesn’t actually come to pass in this life, but you’ve waited in faith, hope, and love, God will come to you when you die, and reward your patience. Eternal life will be so wonderful; it’ll completely overshadow your temporary disappointments.

The end
In Advent we wait for ‘the End’, but people never stop arguing about what this means. Does it mean a second coming of Jesus to earth? Does it mean the disintegration of the physical universe, a sort of ‘anti Big Bang’? Or is it just a poetic image?

Perhaps that doesn’t need to concern us, as long as we’re ready for anything. Jesus said, ‘The end is not yet’ (Matthew 24:6). So don’t be disappointed, there’s plenty of work to be done in the meantime, in caring for the needy and spreading the good news of God’s love.

Advent hope
Advent is also a time of hopefulness — patient hopefulness.

A fine prayer for hope is found in the, Book of Common Prayer, Collect for this Sunday. The Common Worship lectionary, which we follow here, has moved it to the Last Sunday after Trinity, which is often celebrated as Bible Sunday.

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who wrote the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, translated most of the Collects from the Latin Missal. But on the Second Sunday of Advent he wrote an entirely new prayer, based on the Epistle for the day, which we just heard read from the Letter to the Romans. It’s a super prayer:

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
(Book of Common Prayer)

A psalm
The same message of hope drawn from the promises of Scripture is in Psalm 40 — which we sang earlier:

I waited patiently for the Lord : and he inclined unto me, and heard my calling.

In the volume of the book it is written of me, that I should fulfil thy will, O my God : I am content to do it; yea, thy law is within my heart.

Patience
Here are some more quotes about patience:

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘Patience and fortitude conquer all things.’

Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote, ‘Patience is not passive; on the contrary it is active; it is concentrated strength.’

From Jean-Jacques Rousseau we have: ‘Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.’

And a couple of anonymous verses:

‘Patience is a virtue, virtue is a grace,
both put together make a very pretty face.’

Finally, one I’m sure you’ll recognise:

‘Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can;
found seldom in a woman, and never in a man!’

Come to my heart
Patience is a grace that only God can give. This Advent, will you wait patiently for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, in moments of challenge, as you are dying and at the end?

Will you welcome him when he comes at last in justice to right all worldly wrongs?

Then sing in the words of the hymn: ‘O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee.’
(465 — New English Hymnal)

We may be ready to receive him

Paul Sibley — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 09:00:11 +0000

Last week, in my reflection on the Collect, I talked about being prepared to meet God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the somewhat confusing subject of God’s judgement. This week, the Second Sunday of Advent, we have a different emphasis, and we go beyond meeting, to receiving, into our hearts, him who is our Lord and our God.

For me, one of the important things about receiving our Lord and our God into our hearts is that it’s something we do by choice. We can choose to receive God/Jesus into our hearts. And we can choose not to. And the truly amazing thing is that whichever way we decide, it won’t make an iota of difference to the way God feels about us. His love for us isn’t dependent in any way on our love for him. His love for us is a gift, freely offered, with no strings attached.

That’s the God, the Jesus, that we’re praying we’ll be ready to receive in this Collect. And it’s that love that controls everything else. We don’t need to fear the scary things like “judgement”, because our Judge is also our Saviour, and he loves us, each and every one of us, as much as if we were the only ones too love.

For us to love God in the way that he would want us to, it has to be a free choice on our part. You can’t force someone to love you, it wouldn’t be love, it could never be love.

I came across a great quote by the theologian, Greg Boyd, which I’ll finish with:

To refuse to create a world where love was possible because the risk was too great seems to be beneath God. Love is really the only reason worth creating! It’s not freedom for the sake of freedom that God values — it’s love. Freedom is simply the only possible means to this end.

Greg Boyd

Love! It’s our raison d’être.

Almighty God,
purify our hearts and minds,
that when your Son Jesus Christ comes again as
&bbsp; judge and saviour
we may be ready to receive him,
who is our Lord and our God.

Additional Collect for The Second Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Meet God in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ

Paul Sibley — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:00:24 +0000

Today is the First Sunday of Advent, or Advent Sunday, which is the first Sunday in the Church’s liturgical year. The season of Advent takes us from today, right up until Christmas Eve. It’s a penitential season of preparation and waiting. “Advent” means “coming”, and there’s a sense of eager expectancy, as we look forward to the coming of Christ into the world at Christmas.

In this season of Advent we also celebrate the coming of Jesus into our lives daily, at our death, and at the end of the world. And this thinking about the end of the world, especially, leads us to thinking about God’s judgement.

God’s judgement of us is a subject I’m never entirely comfortable with. The differences in theology between the conservative and liberal wings of the Church just confuses me. If I’m asked for an opinion, I usually just admit that I don’t know, but am happy to leave myself to the mercy of an all-loving God, a God who I know loves me far more than I ever will myself.

I heard a story a while ago, though, that just struck a chord for me. I gather it, or something very like it, has been used as an illustration about judgement in the more evangelical Churches for many years. But coming from a somewhat more catholic tradition I hadn’t heard it before.

The story is told of a man who was taken to court to pay a £1,000 fine for a crime that he had committed. The man had no money to clear his debt and pleaded for mercy from the judge. The judge could not just let the man go free or else justice would not have been done. So he ordered that the fine of £1,000 must be paid. Then, in an act of self-sacrificing love, the judge stepped down from his chair, went to the clerk of the court, and wrote a cheque to pay the fine in full. The judge then said that because the penalty had been paid the man was free to leave the court and return home. The judge had ordered that the penalty be paid, but had then paid it himself. This illustrates both the justice and the love that God offers to each of us, by sending Jesus to pay the price and the penalty that our wrongdoing deserves.

As I said, this story really struck a chord for me. I’m not totally convinced by the idea of God sending Jesus to be punished in our place (penal substitution?). Although, once we remember that Jesus is in fact God in human form, it makes more sense. But if it helps us to feel less fearful of the judgement that must surely come — the Bible seems pretty clear on that — then it must be a good thing. Because if we’re less fearful, then perhaps we’ll be more ready to meet God in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin to the
light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect for The First Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Be Yourself

Paul Sibley — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:00:37 +0000

This is one of the videos from the Church of England’s 2010 Advent Campaign, that I’ve been linking to in the sidebar of this blog since the beginning of Advent. They are all good, but this one, from the Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell, particularly resonated with me.

Mary waited for the birth of your Son

Paul Sibley — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 09:00:32 +0000

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Just a few more days to go and we’ll be celebrating, with Mary, the birth of the Christ-child. I wonder if we’re fully prepared: probably not, not here at least. I wonder if Mary was fully prepared: probably not.

God never rejects anyone. He uses the most unlikely people for his purposes, and works with them and through them so that their potential is realised and they change out of all recognition.

Eternal God,
as Mary waited for the birth of your Son,
so we wait for his coming in glory;
bring us through the birth pangs of this present age
to see, with her, our great salvation
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Fourth Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

You sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son

Paul Sibley — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 09:00:33 +0000

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent. It’s a day when we, traditionally, think about John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus’ coming at Christmas — now less than two weeks away!

Perhaps we’ve got it all wrong about Christmas. It’s less than two week away, and what have we done to get ready? Shopped until we we’ve dropped? Bought expensive presents and decorations, and more food and drink than is good for us?