SERMONS

7th July 2009
Trinity Sunday

O Saviour of the World

Isaiah's picture of God contrasts God's greatness and power and majesty with Isaiah's sense of his own human frailty. He sees himself condemned even before he begins. So great and majestic is God that those creatures close to God cannot bear even to look at him. The contrast is really between that which is perfect and all powerful, and everything else. So it is not so much a sense of Isaiah's own personal short comings, but rather the contrast between the created and the Creator.
Everything that stands before God, in Isaiah's view, falls short of that perfection and so is not worthy to even come close.
Isaiah's total otherness to God leaves him feeling inadequate and powerless.
He paints in our minds a picture of royal splendour, the throne, high and exalted, beyond us in every way and set in the temple as the focal point of all that would happen there, namely worship. In that royal presence, were creatures, whose function seemed solely to worship, and yet even then they covered themselves in the presence of the Almighty.
So blinding was the light of the purity of the Divine that it exposed the impurity of the created order.
All of this is the backdrop to Isaiah's feeling of inadequacy as God calls him to be a prophet. He has seen something of the splendour of his God. The mystery has been opened up before him in this vision, and yet he is acutely aware of the nature of the world in which he lives, and he fails to see how he could ever communicate anything of this majestic beauty to his friends and neighbours.
Such inadequacy lies at the heart of us all, I am sure. We all struggle with this same problem as we have a message to share. It is a message that the world around us does not want to hear; it is a message that many feel they have no need to hear, and yet it is a message that the people of God have felt compelled to continue to proclaim from generation to generation.
This struggle, in a sense, lies at the heart of our worship, like that of Isaiah, for we come with that awareness of our human frailty to meet in the presence of the God, who is totally other than us. We come to meet with God whose power and majesty leaves us gasping for any sense of worthiness, thus we form our worship to give expression to that sense of inadequacy as we offer prayers of Adoration, contrasted with our need of confession. It, however, is not left there, for we seal it with the assurance of God's forgiving love that enables us to go on and engage with God and the world in which we live.
But on this Trinity Sunday as we see the human struggle to connect with the Divine, we also need to see the Divine struggle to connect with humanity. For this lies at the heart of the Christian understand of God. For God in Gods self has struggled to communicate with the world. This inner struggle of God's being, who through the prophets of old spoke to the people, always saw that as an inadequate way of communicating from one who was so totally other than us.
Here was God whose presence among us was like the wind, as John put it. The wind blew where ever it would, we would not know where it came from, or where it would go. It was impossible to grasp, let alone see, and yet we could feel its presence.
Humanity has always grasped for some tangible way of knowing God's presence, and John points to Moses who lifted up the bronze snake on a pole as a symbol of God's healing presence. All who gazed upon this pole were spared.
Jesus points here to his own presence among us as God Son who came into the world to express God's love for the world so that the world might be saved.
Far from wanting to condemn the world in judgement, Christ came that the world might be saved.
God's struggle to communicate with the world was solved by his coming as Christ, as the Saviour of the world, as one of us.
No longer was humanity a mystery to the Divine in our estrangement from God, but rather God had come among us and now understood humanity in all aspects of our being.
Those who once looked to the bronze serpent could follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth, who dwelt among us.
God has communicated with us in a way that will not fade, that will not pass away, but once and for all came among us as Saviour of the world.
For all who believe in him, may not perish but have everlasting life. In Christ, God holds out his hand to us, not in condemnation, but in love and mercy.
This Trinitarian concept of God, helps us to see God in God's many facets, not as a being so totally other than us that we should cower in fearful submission, feeling so totally inadequate and unable to contribute in any way to the mission of God. We can certainly see this aspect of God's holiness, and rightfully we should acknowledge it. On the other hand, we can also see the God who came among us, whose presence brought light and life to humanity offering loving acceptance and forgiveness for all that might stand in our way between us and God
So we celebrate Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, the one who himself was lifted up that we might look to him as Saviour of the World.
But of course God has not left it there in God's struggle to communicate, for like the wind that blows among us, so too the Spirit of God continues to move among us. This creative, Life-Giving Spirit, dwells with us and in us. God continues to breathe his presence into us empowering us all to offer who we are for his service in the world today. Yes, like Isaiah, we feel that acute sense of inadequacy, but we know that the power of God is present with us to equip us and enable us to bear witness to God's love in the world today. The burning coals of God's mighty presence touch our lips, our guilt is gone, we have the assurance of God's forgiving love sealed in the cross of Christ and so with confidence we can go into the world to speak of God's love for all people.
But it is not only in the speaking of our words, but in the living of our lives.
For with such understanding of God's presence with us, our view of the world, and our view of God is transformed by his living presence in us.
Again to go back to Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, he speaks of us being born of water and the Spirit, of having and acknowledging that understanding that in our humanity we don't stand alone, but that God's living presence is with us and in us. In this way we understand our humanity in relationship with God who dwells with us. We can see the whole world in a different light, for no longer do we take the burden of the world on our shoulders, but we see ourselves as servants of the Creator, who shares with us the wonder of His Creation.
The glory and the majesty of God, has come to us and dwells with us, and we bear that presence to the world around us, not in any arrogance, but in witness to God's eternal love for the whole world.
May we all be strengthened and equipped as Isaiah was, to take this message to the world in which we live, in what ever way we can.
May our lives bear witness to God's presence in a way that others might see and acknowledge, the greatness and the glory and majesty of our God
May any sense of inadequacy that we feel be tempered by the knowledge that God is with us, that God empowers and strengthen us to be his people in the world today.
And To God be the glory, now and for ever more. AMEN.

Easter 2009

Christ's Prayer for Us.

Again this week that theme of joy comes up as Jesus prays passionately for his Disciples. Joy, being a deep inner contentment, as we live our lives in union with God, knowing that in all things, God is with us. This prayer is known as the great high priestly prayer, Jesus standing as mediator between his people and God, offering to God his prayers for his disciples.
It illustrates the role that Christ holds as King and Head of the church, as the writer of 1 Timothy explains, "For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and mankind together, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself to redeem all mankind."
As redeemer of the World, the one who drew God and humanity together, Christ fulfils this role.
No longer do we need to feel separated or estranged from God, but quite the opposite, for God in his mercy and grace, came to us in Jesus Christ, and now through him draws us into that relationship with God that is open and freely available to all.
This is the priestly relationship that Christ provides, and the only priestly relationship that we need, for no other can take that place. Christ's coming among us offers us that free and equal accessibility to God as we pray.
So prayer becomes for us a means of communication, a means of relating to God.
As God has been made know to us through Christ's coming, so are we made known to God through Christ and his mediating role.
In this high priestly prayer there is a sense that this is not just a general state of our being, but that Christ's interest is in us is as individuals. He prays, not for the whole world, in this case, but for those given to him, for it is the disciples on whom he is focusing.
His prayer is focused and personalised and he prays that they may be kept safe. Having lived in the world, God in Christ knows the dangers and the temptations; he knows the pitfalls of human life, for he has experienced this, and so his prayer is for their safety. In the face of danger and persecution, in the face of temptations, Christ prayers that he will remain steadfast to his disciples, just as he remained steadfast to his Father in heaven.
This is such a beautiful picture of the mediating role of Christ, who has been where we are, and who understands from the depths of his heart what it is to be in the world.
But like Christ, there is a sense in which we are in the world, but that our heart lies beyond this world. That phrase, in the world but not of the world expresses this sentiment. Our focus, our heart, our desire lies with God, to see that God is made known, that 'God's will' will be done, as the prayer puts it, on earth as it is in heaven.
Thus as Christians, surely we see a bigger picture than merely what we can see and touch and feel. Our picture of life and the world takes us beyond the bounds of the physical and tangible, beyond the years that lie between the cradle and the grave, to that which is eternal. And while we can never fully comprehend the all that this involves or means, faith and trust in God, through Jesus Christ gives us glimpses into this concept of eternal life.
But in having that extended vision of life in its totality, we need to be grounded in the world in which we find ourselves.
And it is because of this extended vision, that we see purpose and meaning in our being here. Our lives on earth should never be seen as merely a necessary transition from one state of being to the ultimate. Jesus gave his disciples of sense of being, as he called them to follow him, as he called them to be fishers of men.
You see we are each called to be followers of Christ and to bear witness to God's love in Jesus Christ. This is part and parcel of our reason for being. And we are to do this in the context of where we are, for we can all view our lives and the contribution we can make, as God's calling to be his disciples. He said, in v14, "I gave them your message, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world."
Sometimes we as the church need to stand in contrast to the world around us; we need to stand counter to the culture of our day.
For when we see injustice, starvation, inhumanity, the world acting against God's principles of accepting love for all people, we need to be prepared to voice our opinions, and to proclaim God's mercy and grace. And history has taught us that the church may not always be popular in doing this.
It may set us against the prevailing thoughts of our communities, or nations, but is this not the example Christ taught us as he went to the cross.
And of course it is never quite as simple as it sounds, for often the church struggles to agree on issues as to which is God's way and which is not. But nevertheless, there is nothing that suggests that because such things are difficult that we should merely give up on them.
Christ struggled and looked for other options, but was always willing to ultimately submit to God's ways.
This, maybe, illustrates the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness can be a momentary emotion emanating from any given event in our lives, where as joy is that contentment of knowing that even in our struggling we seek to follow God's ways, and that we do that with the assurance of his constant presence and power to assist us and to keep us safe in our relationship with God.
And I suppose it is prayer that cements this relationship. Just as Christ prayed to the Father, so we pray to God through Christ. In our prayer we maintain and grow that relational aspect of our faith with God. And as he has come to us in Christ and continues to come to us in and through the power of the Holy Spirit, so we play our part in prayer as our response to the gracious movement of God to us, with our pleas, and thanksgiving and praise that we offer to God.
Prayer has many facets, just as communication within any relationship does. It is not just the shopping list of all our wants and desires. Prayer can have that focus of praise where we contemplate and acknowledge aspects of God's greatness and power, it can be those moments of struggling as we endeavour to understand how God could possible be in circumstance that we cannot fathom. We can express our sense of God forsakenness, we give thanks as we open up to God with gratitude the great things that we have received or achieved. We can come to God with not only our own needs but also the needs of those around us and dear to us.
Prayer literally becomes, as we have seen in this great high priestly prayer, a conversation between two friends.
It is both speaking and listening, the later of which most of us are probably not the best at when it comes to prayer.
But should we not in our praying allow for response from God; the God who is all knowing and ever present. So God's response is probably most often seen in the circumstances that arise and we need to look to see where God is in all of that.
And so in that searching we are also listening, in that looking we are finding and hearing the voice of God in our midst.
We see this process perhaps best of all in the choosing of the successor to Judas. The group of disciples gathered often for prayer and then drew lots to determine God's will in this instance.
God can work even in such a simple way as this, if we see God's presence with us in all that we do. Prayer does not stand apart from our actions but is woven in to the very fabric of our being. Prayer does not need to be isolated to those formal times of worship or devotion, but can be a moment by moment spontaneous reaction to the ebbs and flows of life.
But we should develop that consciousness that recognises the growing and developing nature of our relationship with God.
Let us strive to do that in our daily life so that together we grow in the grace that is offer to us freely, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And To God be the glory, now and for ever more. AMEN.