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Christ Church Morningside Epiphany IV Christmas to Easter I
want to begin this sermon with a quote from a speech given by Martyn
King. He
was addressing a conference in Manchester about a week ago, and it was
reported in a daily newspaper.;
During his talk he made this fascinating comment;
“The
true meaning of the Christmas Story will not be revealed until Easter, or even
sometime later”
Gosh!, I thought this is an interesting insight, - The Governor of the
Bank of England has really got to the heart of
understanding the Christian Faith.
I do not know if he is a practising
Christian or not, but I read on........ he had a
lot more to say BUT
then I quickly discovered that Martyn King
was not talking about his understanding of the Christian faith.........
He was talking about the British economy, and our level of spending. He
was saying that you would only be able to understand the truth about the level
of spending at Christmas when the final accounts are published at Easter, or
even later in the year!
That
statement by the Governor of the Bank may have been a reflection on the
British Economy, but it was for me a very helpful truth about Christian
Discipleship;.
We sometimes have to wait to see the full picture.
There is always much more to discover about Jesus.
Christmas
and the days that followed were a time of initial disclosure.
God being show forth.
But it was only the beginning of the story.
At
Christmas we begin to see God’s revelation of Himself,
His Epiphany his showing forth.
He is being held up for us to see.
I
remember how we tried to express that in a church where I was once Rector.
I
have shared with some of you in the past the story of our Christmas crib
It was a very poor parish as far as finances were concerned, most of
the parishioners were unemployed, and were
on benefit. For our crib that
year, one of our members who was a bit of an
artist, carved some figures out of polystyrene.
When it came to Epiphany,
we discussed
with the congregation what form
the figures should take. How
could we express our thoughts?
As a result we had one of the kings lifting up the Christ Child for all
the world to see. It was a
powerful sign.
and
it was set up with a back cloth of
the world we knew so well, the Chemical plants, the ship yard, the street
markets, and the estate where we lived. Jesus
being held up,
Shown
forth, Epiphany
But this was only the beginning of the story.
We could never fully understand the story of Christmas until we have
seen more.
And
that is where we are now. In the
season after The
Epiphany, the showing forth. still goes on, New
Insights to discover. The
Gospel stories over these weeks tell us more of the revelation of God in the
actions of Jesus. Christ is till
being held up for us,
.... to see the way God wants for us,
for his world, and for his church.
And
here this morning we have just heard
the Beatitudes. I
want to return to these in a moment, for this will not the end of God’s
story. In a short time,
Lent will be a time to look forward to Easter.
There we see the supreme
act of Jesus being
shown forth, on the CROSS being
lifted up, and seeing the
passionate Love of God for us and for the world.
but even that is not the end.
We then
experience the resurrection.......
The
raising up of Jesus for all to see.,
The power of God at work. and
coming to that climax in the Ascension, with the affirmation
that GOD is now overall IN all and THROUGH all
That’s all Epiphany, in all its glory and wonder.
BUT we are not there yet.
Today
is only the 4th Sunday in Epiphany.
Now, we are presented with the Beatitudes..
We heard again those familiar but splendid words of Jesus which come at
the beginning of what we commonly call the Sermon on the mount.
We
have heard these words so often,
Yes they have a particular beauty.
They are often chosen for some service of dedication or celebration or
remembrance, - a funeral or a wedding. they
seem to fit so many events, and yet, what do we really make of them?
They are often so misunderstood, we hear them, perhaps begin to think
about them and begin to get a glimpse of their meaning, we are not sure we
agree with them. As one
commentator has written, they seem like a charter for wimps.
But
that is to misunderstand what we have here.
The Beatitudes is not
an appeal to exhort people to greater virtue, to try much harder to be
good, to be more humble, and meek...That kind of approach only leads either to
a greater feeling of self satisfaction, “Well perhaps I don’t do too bad! well
at least I am better than others!”
or we are left in a deeper sense of guilt.
“I could never live up to that”
To
begin to understand the Beatitudes we need to see them as yet another
Epiphany, a showing forth of the Heart and Character of GOD.
The Epiphany of God seen in the life and work of Jesus.
The Life of
Jesus that we are invited to take
into ourselves,
The
Christian message is
not an appeal to do better, to be good, but it is an invitation to be open to
the transforming life of God. We
are called to be open to The Spirit of God, we
then begin to discover those gifts of God at work in us.
Certainly it requires effort,
and to make a conscious response.
BUT this is a developing relationship with Jesus ,
and like any relationship, it needs to be worked at, sustained,
strengthened, in prayer, in the life of a community, in sacraments, being open
to new insights through study and reading.
And
what is the effect? For
those who are open to this transforming gift of God,
They are called ‘Blessed’.
Here is
another much misunderstood word!
and changing it as some translations do....
to Happy seems to make it worse. A
phrase a little nearer to the meaning in the original
is one we use when we say to someone today whose has discovered a real
gift or talent, or has been given some valuable gift and we
exclaim......................“My aren’t you a lucky person,
Or aren’t you lucky people! That’s
nearer to it.
Now
there is no time to look at each of these Beatitudes;
..... these
gifts this morning. Each one
would take a sermon in itself,
It
doesn’t mean that to be Holy you must be poor! - when
you look at poverty in the Bible it is seen as unjust, There is nothing
romantic about being poor..
Being
poor in Spirit, doesn’t mean putting yourself down, that’s false humility
We try to make excuses for not voicing our thoughts when we feel
something is wrong and
so we say something like; “Who am I to say that, I am a nobody, that is up to someone else.”
False humility is an
insult to God who created and is creating us.
Being
poor in Spirit- is being open to God, rather than trying to be God.
Being
poor in Spirit is recognising our needs, Jesus needed to ask for things he
needed.
Being
poor in Spirit, means being interdependent, rather than independent-
Jesus relied on others for their co-operation
That
is just a taster; If you would
like to explore these things further, and to be open to receive new insights
into these Beatitudes, either as an individual, or as a congregation, I would
encourage you to sign up for the Lent Group based on this book.
Let Lent be for us all a time of
new understandings as we are led to Easter and beyond.
“The
True meaning of the Christmas Story will not be revealed until Easter, or even
some time later”
I
don’t think the Governor of the Bank of England meant us to understand his
words in this way, but I am grateful for what he said.
John
Williams,
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