Sermon: preached 04/12/2016: on Isaiah 11.1-10 & Matthew 3.1-12Isaiah’s prophecy of a Peaceful Kingdom (Isaiah 11.1-10). I think ‘peace’ is a difficult concept for us to understand – as a child, a jokingly said ‘Oh, what I wouldn’t give for some peace and quiet in this house’ by either my mum or dad, was instantly met with 5 small girls marching around the room singing, ‘I like PEAS, I like CARROTS’ and laughing hysterically at our witty pun. ‘Peace’ becomes synonymous with ‘quiet’ or ‘rest’ but that certainly isn’t what Isaiah meant. Isaiah was boldly proclaiming the impossible possibility. At the time, Jerusalem was destroyed and despairing and under the occupation of the Assyrians – their biggest enemy. As a people they were broken up and disjointed, they’d lost so many and so much, and each day, to live was a struggle. And Isaiah doesn’t sugar-coat that. He doesn’t ignore it and just tell them it will all be fine one day. Isaiah admits that the shoot will have to sprout forth from a stump – at a point where the royal line of David has been cut down, and nothing but a dry and lifeless stump remains. In other words, when there is no hope, because all has been destroyed. And yet, THEN a shoot shall sprout forth. There will be life again. And beauty shall come up and grow out of that new life.
For Isaiah, then, the word ‘peace’ – SHALOM – means more than just quiet, or tranquillity, or contentment, though it can mean those things; it also means wholeness, completeness; it means safety and soundness, it means welfare and unbroken, undamaged relationship, with other people, and with God. ‘Peace’ was a state that the people reading Isaiah’s book for the first time could only dream of – could possibly only even picture through the images he gave them. And if we are honest with ourselves, this completeness and wholeness and unbroken, undamaged relationship is something we but dream of too. None of us have to look too far or wait too long to find either others or ourselves in times of brokenness; moments when, though our lives are full of things to do, they feel empty; instances when we could not say that we have peace. That is why Jesus came into the world. In the midst of all the darkness, born into poverty, in a place he wasn’t welcome and had to flee for fear of his life, so that he could demonstrate to us how God’s light and love breaks in, even to the darkest of situations and times. He came as a shoot, breaking through into the world, with life and beauty, and righteousness and justice. Isaiah goes on; “...but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor”. Wherever the Kingdom of God is being built or proclaimed, it must not forget to also build and proclaim justice for the poor and exploited. For into situations of darkness and despair, there the shoot must grow, that brings light and life and love. An example of this. When I was 17, I went with my sister, and a church group on a trip to Israel and to the Palestinian Occupied Territories in the West Bank. We were there principally to visit and support Christians there, and show them that they were not forgotten. We visited schools and clinics and church groups, hearing their stories, bringing aid where we could and standing in solidarity with them. Being so young at the time, and having never been abroad anywhere before, and certainly having never seen such degrading treatment of an entire group of people; I was utterly overwhelmed by the darkness and – quite often – lack of hope there was there. People worn down by gradual and continuing occupation, just making one aspect of life harder, and then a next, and then another. When we asked one of the head teachers there, who was also a Priest, what we should tell people when we go back home, he said that we should tell them “they have brothers and sisters here who are suffering. Palestine is a land of sorrow; there are no resources, there’s no work and there’s just no money." Everything has been taken; everything simple made difficult. And yet, amid that darkness and despair were people who did – and continue to – break forth with the love of God, becoming a beacon of Christ’s light, in that darkness. One such man was the head teacher, K, in a school in Hebron which is run completely by Christians and attended almost completely by Muslim students. It is a normal school but also has some places for orphans to board there. When K was a young boy, he was an orphan who boarded at this school, and now he has gone through the whole education process and come full circle back to now being the head teacher. And he is an amazing man. He runs his whole school on the principle of treating every one of his students with the love of Christ. And the school becomes a lifeline for these children – it becomes somewhere they get treated like human beings, and more importantly, like human beings who were created and are loved and cherished, as every person should be. But he is up against a lot. He has to teach his children how to love. Because in their homes and in their streets there is a big military presence in Hebron, and there is a large amount of violence from Israeli settlers there. Just walking through the market streets of the town, we saw above the market a big metal grid stretching across the street to protect the Palestinians below from bricks and rubbish that the settlers throw down at them. It is not a nice place to live. And yet he goes into each day hoping that he can show those children what it means to love. What peace is. Something they have never known. When we asked K what he needed most from us; his immediate response was 'prayer'. He wanted us to pray for what he prays for: ‘for the children and for the whole area to have peace and love.’ He says that peace can only come from love. And that if they all have and treat people with the love of Jesus, then that is how they will get peace. A beautiful sentiment that this man is living out. Despite the difficulties presented in doing so. In that darkness – right within it – he has made the decision to “bear fruits worthy of repentance” as the reading about John the Baptist put it (Matthew 3.1-12). In Advent, we are getting ready for Christ to enter the world; remembering him coming down to meet us, demonstrating just how far God’s love goes for us. But he has already come; and there is still darkness, there is still not peace. But a shoot begins small. A shoot grows. And has been growing ever since. Every time someone loves as Christ does, another branch grows out from that tree, and fruit starts to blossom and bloom. And peace grows, until one day, enemies will lie down together, for there will be no fear, or war, or hatred, or destruction. And all will know the love of God. As Isaiah pictures in the vivid metaphors he uses in the second half of that reading. This whole period of Advent is about having an attitude of expectation, hopefulness and prayerful waiting, that all these things will one day come to be, knowing that we have a part to play in that. Advent calls us to be people who already have one foot in God’s new age, and who imagine ourselves as being already the change we want to see in the world. As his followers we are called, within that darkness, to make light – to be that demonstration continually to other people of how far God has already gone for them. To love, love and then still love, no matter how costly that might be, and love can indeed be costly as Jesus showed us on the cross. But ‘peace can only come from love’. That is why, to make ourselves ready for Christ, we must love as he does, breaking in with peace and light, amidst the darkest and most difficult of situations, with the fruits his love bears in us. John the Baptist cried out, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near ... Prepare the way of the Lord!” And many who truly did want to change their lives went down to the river and were baptised by him. In baptism we die – we go down, recognising the hopeless nature of ourselves and our utter powerlessness to love fully and make peace by ourselves. And then we are brought back up, washed clean, made new. As Jesus rose, so we rise, and this time, we have his power, and with his love, we can love powerfully and fully too. And this will grow into peace, and enemies will lie down together, for all will know the love of God. For true peace can only come from love.
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My first ever collaboration post - how exciting! :-D T his photo was taken by my friend Michael Nyatigi, whose photography work you can see more of, over on his photostream website, and I offer a reflection on it and on the theme for this first week of advent: hope. On the first Sunday of Advent, we light a candle as a symbol of Hope.
Advent is a time for hope; expectant and prayerful hope, confident in the love of God made present with us always because he came down to earth for us. It is a time for provocative possibilities that take us beyond the world as it is, to the world as it could be - no, should be! A place of healing, restoration, justice and peace; wholeness, completeness and life in its fullness with nothing to detract from it or hold back from us. It is a time for us to take hold of that confidence and boldness brought from that hope we have in a faithful, wonderful God, and use it to "walk in the light of Lord" (Isa 2.4), even when we are surrounded by darkness. A time when we ask ourselves: how will we experience peace in this busy build-up to Christmas; how will our Advent be holy and whole-making; what behaviours do we need to change to be part of the peaceful world that God intends? We need to live intentionally; demonstrating the love of God we know to be true. As people living in the hope of God, we can depend on God to provide the light we need. To shine like the sun, bringing warmth and comfort and light, after the cold, dark night. And if we can live like the truth of Advent IS true; that Emmanuel - God-with-us - broke into the world and lives with and in and through and for us today, then we will see him shining and coming to us in every encounter, as we prayerfully wait and hope for it to come more. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (Jn 1.5) I was preaching last Sunday, and the following is an adapted (and shortened!) version of the sermon I preached:
Christmas. As you will know, my advent series on my blog has meant that I had been very consciously waiting for it, and then it finally came - it happened, with all its promised excitement and joy, and then it finished. But can that really be it? All done and dusted? Christmas "over-and-out" for another year? Christmas day to me means waking up and getting excited - realising that there is something special about this day; it means exchanging gifts that bring joy and show that someone cares for you and you for them - using giving as a means of loving; and them it means going to church, being in God's family, where the gift is his love, shown through his people and poured out through their hearts. Christmas is all about that love. There is no way that God could show his love for us more than by making himself a powerless and vulnerable baby boy who would have a true experience of human lie and would die a terrible experience of human death. Death that would give us life, even though we definitely didn't deserve it. And that story lasts so much longer than one day, just for Christmas! That story has lasted over 2000 years and it's still going strong! And it's still very much needed too. In Colossians 3.14-15 Paul says, "Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you were indeed called in the one body." Paul lists many virtues in the preceding verses; compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness... but then says that they are all bound together in love. And he follows that with this statement on PEACE. Peace is so desperately needed in our world. The terrors we have seen in recent months; countries against countries, groups of people against other groups of people, religions against religions; and so many people - so many lives - caught up in the middle of it. But we are called to let the peace of Christ lead us; guide us; decide what we choose to do in relation to other people. Of course, living in peace doesn't mean that the differences which often end up causing conflicts immediately disappear. But what it does mean is that, as Christians, we should love others and work together with them , despite their differences to us. Such love is not a feeling, but a decision to meet others' needs. If God loves us so much that he would come down to earth for us, even though compared to him, we were vile, that should give us the power and the confidence to love others too, though they may be different to us as well. Clothing ourselves in the love of God leads to peace between people, because it shows us that love is more important than the differences. Love is bigger. When we look around us at all the things going on in this world; the many conflicts I alluded to above; the flooding, here in our own country, as well as other natural disasters around the world, climate change becoming evermore prevalent; people dying from curable diseases that their countries can't afford to make available to them; and poverty preventing so many families from the security and safety of a home, food to eat, heat to keep warm by. I don't know about you, but when I think about it all, I cannot come up with a way to solve the problems. It's like this; as you know, I went paint-balling for the first time with some friends of mine recently, and I loved it! But I remember this one moment, just before I got shot in the leg 3 times. And I was standing behind a tree, looking forward, where what I was aiming for was behind a little house-style wall. But there was someone crouching in the window, firing at me too. And then someone else started firing at me from the right. And I couldn't be behind the tree in both directions, but there was nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. And I wasn't scared of being hit; that had happened many times already - there was a little sting but it didn't hurt that much! And yet my heart was beating with adrenaline because I couldn't work out a way to get out of this situation. I couldn't think of any way to change what was going to happen. I had no control. And when I look at the world sometimes, I get that feeling but so much stronger. I want to change it. I want to stop the conflicts, and the poverty, and the injustice, and the hatred, and the pain and the suffering. And I look up to God and I say, "HOW?! How do I change the world?" Because I can't think of anything. And I sink down as if I'm behind that tree, my heart pounding, scared that I'll never work it out; that I can't change anything. But I do not need to be afraid. Because God is a loving God, and God is a surprising God. The God who gave himself to die for me, is the God who will save the world again. The God who chose to interact with the world through all the people we remembered through Advent, will go on interacting through the people who follow him in this world. And the God of all hope and joy and peace and love will not abandon the world he came and died to save. People have often talked about the real meaning of Christmas, but this is the real application of Christmas. If we believe that God came down to earth because of his great love for us, then we must become carriers of that love to this hurting world. Christmas means that there is hope. That even if we feel pinned behind a tree, with nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait for the inevitable, God is beside us, as if from nowhere and, surprising us as always, he finds a way to bring love and peace and joy to that situation too. It often seems hopeless, but so did that stable-cave with nowhere clean to lay the baby. So did the search for a child, in a city (Luke 2.41-52). So did Jesus, dying on a cross, blood dripping from the thorns in his head and a spear thrust in his side. But God was born, and God was found, and God rose again. All because of his love. So we are to bring that love into the hurt and horrors of the world - because his love changes hopeless situations and his love will change the world. So Christmas day may have been and gone for another year. But it does not end there; the Christmas story goes on and on; as long as there are people with God's love in their hearts, there will come peace, there will come joy, no matter how hopeless is may seem now. For love is more important. Love is bigger. Love binds all things together.
IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE EVE!!! Or what, sometimes in my house, has become known as 'Christmas Adam'... don't try and work it out, it really doesn't make sense even in a child's logic! But anyway, YEAH, CHRISTMAS EVE IS TOMORROW!!!!! :-D
Today has been quite boring, as it was my last real chance to get a solid amount of work done before my grandparents arrive tomorrow and then it's fun and festivities all the way to the end of Sunday! But now, sat watching Jackie Chan (I love Jackie Chan!) and writing this, I'm feeling a little of the excitement begin! Also a little bit of the panic, as I realise I still need to move the bedding out of my room and tidy up so my grandparents can sleep in there tomorrow night, set up somewhere I can sleep, wrap my presents, finish planning my sermon for Sunday, make a banoffee pie (Mmmm!) and probably loads of other things that are currently slipping my mind; not to mention all the Uni work that still needs to be done at some point before next term...! But you know what, thank goodness, none of that is what Christmas is about! Thank goodness that there is more to life than all the busywork and all the little things I need to do day-to-day. And thank goodness that if there is any time to put that realisation at the forefront of my mind, it is Christmas, when Jesus, so small and delicate came to earth as a baby - a baby who had no cares in the world - to live a life that would prove there is more to life than this! |
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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