Sermon for Holy Innocents

Although written three years ago, nothing has changed

A few days ago I received a circular letter from a Christian organisation with their Presidents message for the Christmas Season. I have to say I receive quite a number of such letters and pay little attention but something caught my eye in this letter, the sentiment of the opening paragraph. Without quoting exactly, it was ‘well what with the credit crunch and wars around the world I am finding it hard to get into the Christmas spirit’ - and I wonder how many people felt the same, but I found it a little disturbing. It was as if Christmas should be some sort of distraction from the real world, as if the message of Christmas was all about taking our minds off the reality of the world. And I found it disturbing because here was someone in a very senior position in a church organisation, who seemed to imagine this to be true - as if we needed Peace on Earth in order to celebrate Christmas -but the message of Christmas is that God does not wait for the world to get itself ready for his appearing, that global economic meltdown and wars and rumours of wars is the world into which God comes in Jesus.

Put another way - if we in our wisdom and power have got the world all sorted out  - well then a Saviour arriving on the scene isn’t good news, because we don’t need one, we’ve saved ourselves.

To paraphrase one Christian Writer, the message of Christmas is not that everything is fine - it’s far from fine, but in Jesus God has made a decisive start on putting things right and shows us a new way - but it is not an easy way, it is the way of Love. Not a romanticised Love - not the sort of Love often on the lips of Christians which ignores the reality of the world and blithely announces ‘I Love everybody’ - but the Love of Christ that sees the world as it is and then lays down it’s life for this cruel and broken world - greater Love. When Jesus appears on the scene we see Love in Reality - and so we see the World as it truly is.

As we do on this day - The feast of the Holy Innocents.  The slaughter of all the male children under two by Herod. A reminder of Pharaoh - his injunction that all the male Hebrew babies should be  killed at birth. Rather like the romantic view of Moses in the basket which clouds our imaginations to the wholesale slaughter of children around him - the birth of Jesus may be so romanticised that we forget Holy Innocents. We may wish to escape into a fantasy Christmas with words about ‘Christmas Spirit’ and familiar rituals and forget today’s Holy Innocents - we may choose to ignore the truth that that today’s rulers think the daily death of 36,000 children of malnutrition or from lack of clean water is a price worth paying for  'Progress', or 'National Security', or the greatest of all Idols, 'keeping the economy on track'. When the powers that be are disturbed the most vulnerable in society are always the victims - I do not need to tell you what will happen because we know - in the need to tighten our belts - the shamefully small aid budgets of the wealthy will be reduced even further. I gather that despite the credit crunch people have continues to spend on Christmas but at the same time charities are reporting sharp decreases in donations. When the rulers of this age be they ’the economy’ be they Pharaoh be they Herod - when they are threatened the weakest are sent to the wall as a price worth paying. And the weakest are the frail and elderly, and the children.

The Holy Innocents. Why do we use this word Innocent for children? Because they are powerless - they are wholly irresponsible for the way the world is - Who creates wars? Who creates violence? Who creates unjust economic orders? Who makes a mess of the world? Not children but adults. Here again is that strange revealing of the Nature of Love.

A child, uniquely amongst humanity embodies perfectly the human vocation - to be recipients of Love and to give love in return - it is only as we bring them up that they forget the way of Love. And we in our wisdom think we know how to bring children up, that their vocation is to become like us adults. But Jesus says the exact opposite -  ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like children you shall not enter the Kingdom of God’. And when we think about becoming like children the true cost of Love is revealed - for we see what happens to children - what happens to the weak and the vulnerable in our society and across the World, we see what the World does to them, not only two thousand years ago around Bethlehem but today.

And we are frightened of that reality - why becoming like a child, eschewing control and power, entering into weakness and vulnerability. So we hedge ourselves round with reasons to ignore Jesus’ way of Love - ‘why, if we became like children we think’ - the world would go to pot! Well folks, take off the dark glasses - the world has gone to pot and only the children are innocent. Only the children are not responsible for the way the world is. Funny isn’t it - how we try to bring children up to be responsible . . .

This is why the freedom which Jesus brought was rejected and continues to be rejected to this day both by those inside and outside of the church - because freedom means vulnerability and we prefer life trapped by the walls we’ve built for ourselves to defend ourselves than accept the offer of freedom and vulnerability which Jesus brings. We see what happens to the weak and are trapped by the Herod’s and Pharaoh’s of this age. But the way of the Holy Innocents is also the way of The Holy Innocent - The Archbishop of Canterbury in his Christmas address says the following “Human beings, left to themselves, have imagined God in all sorts of shapes; but it took Christianity to introduce the world to the idea of God in the form of a baby: in the form of complete dependence and fragility, without power or control.” In the birth of Jesus we see the Life of Jesus - born in weakness and vulnerability, living in weakness and vulnerability and dying in weakness and vulnerability - and so revealing the truth about the World and the Truth about Love. Upon the Cross St Paul reminds us - Jesus unmasks and dethrones the powers and authorities of this world - it is only as the world is confronted with something alien and strange to itself that its true nature is revealed.

The Holy Innocent’s don’t fight back - the cruelty of the world is revealed - Jesus unlike so many failed Messiah’s does not come into Jerusalem with an army - he is the only Messiah we remember because Jesus alone did not answer the world’s violence with violence and so hide the truth about the world, rather he confronted it with Love and so unmasked the world’s truth.

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one* might boast in the presence of God.

Christmas is truly about children, it’s about learning from children, it’s about relearning our humanity from children because as Christians we believe that God comes to us as a vulnerable child and he calls us to follow his way -  the way of vulnerability, the way of weakness, the way of Love, which is the power of God.

Sermon for Advent 4

 Sermon for Advent 4

2 Samuel 7: 1-11,16

Romans 16:25-7

Luke 1:26-38

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

Over the last few weeks I’ve been weaving several themes into the sermons as we make our way through Advent, preparing for the coming of the Lord – the one whom suddenly comes to His temple. In the mornings I’ve focused especially on the significance of the Old Testament background to our understanding of what Christmas is all about, that to truly appreciate what it is we shall celebrate in seven days time – and in the evenings we’ve been taking time to think about the title given to Jesus, Son of David. Well as we draw near to Christmas these themes and in a sense the entire corpus of Scripture is coming closer together like the spokes on a Bicycle wheel coming into their focal point, the hub. The Old Testament story is about to break into the New – Creation is about to give way to New Creation and the Son of David comes to be born in the city of David. For the only time in Advent the focus of our thoughts shifts from the Old Testament to one who is revealed in the new, Mary the Mother of our Lord – but we cannot move the focus without remembering what has gone before. As last week with the year of the Lord’s favour, as in previous weeks with the rich imaginings of the prophets, we cannot begin to understand hat is happening in this Annunciation to Mary without an understanding of the background and one of if not The Key interpretative key is The Temple of the Lord and more specifically the Ark of the Covenant which was placed in the Holy of Holies, but which had been missing now for many years, since around the time of the exile – it’s absence from the Temple of Herod the Great not remarked upon but a living rebuke to Worship of the Living God in the time of Christ

Our reading from Samuel finds David established in his Royal palace in Jerusalem, and ‘The LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around Him’ – and he looks about and declares ‘I am living in a palace of Cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent’. The Ark of God – the Ark of the covenant in which Moses had placed the two tablets of the law, the ten commandments but not only that, also the bread of the presence and the rod of Aaron – Ancient reminders of God’s Presence being Priestly and sustaining his people with the bread from heaven, the Manna.

            And David has it in mind that it is not right that he should live in a Palace, but that the Ark, should remain in a tent. For the Ark was far more than a box of religious artifacts – it was both the place of the atoning sacrifice and also the Place where God deigned to dwell, enthroned among the cherubim. So, David has gone to a lot of trouble to bring the Ark to Jerusalem and this is outlined in the chapter immediately prior to our reading today, in 2 Samuel 6

             And I am beholden to the Catholic scholar Scott Hahn for the following illuminating parallels between the story of the ark and that of Mary and Elizabeth that I read at the beginning – remember the New Testament is a fulfilling of the Old, so we should find distinct traces of the New in the Old. And here there are Very Powerful echoes. David had gone into the Hill country of Judea – just as Mary did after the annunciation, to see Elizabeth – David declares ‘How can the ark of the Lord come to me?’ – Elizabeth says ‘Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?’ – David dances with all his might before the ark of the LORD – John the Baptist leaps in the womb of his mother at the presence of Mary – after David went up, the ark of the LORD remained three months in the hill country, and Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home. We listen to the story of Mary and Elizabeth, but we are meant to hear the story of David and the ark of the covenant

Do you see? That if we are familiar with the Old Testament texts, then all of the sudden the Christmas story takes on new and powerful dimensions. Why we probably never wondered what was the significance of Mary staying three months with Elizabeth – but all the parallels with the story of David bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, suddenly bring this text to a Life we did not even suspect it possessed.

And that parallelism, that striking symbolism is made even clearer in the account of the annunciation – the power of the Most High will overshadow you – as the writer to the Hebrews puts it – ‘Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover.’ The Glory of God dwelt amongst the cherubim, overshadowing the Ark. The atonement cover was the place of the atoning sacrifice [Rom 3:25 Hilasterion Gk] – Mary was to be the new Ark who would bear the one who would be both the sacrifice and the place of the sacrifice. The one who would carry within her not tablets of Stone but the New Law, of Grace and Truth, the Law that is Christ, not the rod of Aaron symbolizing priesthood but the New high Priest, Not the old manna which their ‘ancestors ate and died, but the living bread that one may eat and not die’

            The symbolism is compelling – and all the more so when you remember that the Ark had gone missing – it had been lost, an old tradition in 2 Maccabees,  a book of the apocrypha says Jeremiah came and found a cave-dwelling, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense; then he sealed up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the way, but could not find it. When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: ‘The place shall remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear - and where does tradition hold that Christ was born, not in a Stable, but a Cave

            One of the crucial signs that the people waited for as they waited for God’s Messiah, was the restoration of the ark and listening to the story of the annunciation and the visit of Mary to Elizabeth with this background, the story is suddenly given a new and dramatic dimension, one all too clear to the first hearers of the gospel.

Well enough of the Ark for now – but what of Mary in her human response to the words of the angel – and it is important that we put it that way – for unlike Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, there is no sense that Gabriel appears to Mary – we tend to assume it – Luke is very careful in his writing, the angel of the LORD appeared to Zechariah – he did not believe what the angel said, thus he was struck blind – but Luke says that Gabriel ‘came to Mary and Said ‘Greetings favoured one, the Lord is with you blessed are you among women’ and Mary was troubled by his words, wondering about the greeting’ the emphasis throughout is on the words of the angel – she is troubled by his words, not his appearing – and Mary says Yes to the word. She heard and accepted the word – thus there is an important tradition in the early church that Mary conceived through her ear – so early pictures of the annunciation have a beam of light going into her ear. She heard and accepted the word planted in her. To put it in ways that apply directly to us, she Obeyed.

            The word Obedience has roots which give it the meaning Full hearing – if you obey, you have Really heard, the Word has passed into you and born life and fruit as it is without parallel in Mary, who through her obedience is The Model of humble obedience to Christ the Living Word. “Here am I the Servant of the Lord” she offers herself to be the dwelling place of the Son of God “Let it be to me according to your word” She says Yes to God Most High – and so like the first Eve,  but this time without sin, she becomes a New Mother of all the Living, all those who are born again having said their own yes to God in Obedience, and are thus born anew.

While we were yet sinners, loudly declaring our NO to God, Christ died for our sins, becoming the Representative human declaring instead a YES to God. Mary in a real sense becomes the first in whom Christ dwells through her own Yes to God’s will. She is the first example of the obedience of faith to which the whole gospel calls us

St Paul bookends his epistle to the Romans with this phrase – in Chapter 1:5 he declares his work as the apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith amongst the gentiles – and in the last verses he points back ‘to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but is now disclosed, to bring about the obedience of faith’ – this is the goal of the gospel that in the yes of Christ and through the yes of Mary, all humanity may be drawn to that same yes,the obedience of faith.

The book of Revelation may seem a strange place to tie up a sermon, just before Christmas, but this is all laid out in chapters 11 and 12 where John sees Heaven opened and sees the ark and then suddenly he sees the woman clothed with the sun who gives birth to a child who is carried up to the throne of  God - the Victory of Christ is proclaimed and the dragon in his anger we are told ‘went off to make war on the rest of the woman’s children ‘those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus’ Those who in Christ and through the obedience of Mary say yes and reveal in themselves the obedience of faith, who themselves say “Let it be to me, according to your word” - May we likewise hear and obey.

Christmas magazine article

The Vicar writes . . .

“God is with us!”

Is it all Good News??

One of the difficulties of settling into a new culture is the slowly dawning realization, that for all our common cultural inheritance and language, like the past “they do things differently”. Those of you whom we have come to live amongst, who have grown up in these most beautiful of islands, have been deeply embedded in a way of life and a way of understanding the world which is strange and new to my family and myself and it takes time to adjust.

            One of the BIG differences of course is that no-one here thinks it at all odd to celebrate Christmas in mid-summer J The seemingly infinitely variable weather may well mean that wind makes moan, but it is unlikely to be frosty; the earth is not standing hard like iron – rather it is perfect for rapidly growing vegetables for the Christmas table! But, that is a good thing for it is all too easy for any of us to be lulled into cosy sentiment regarding Christmas, wherever we may live – and vicars, having to speak to Christmas year in year out, need their perspectives renewing more than most!

            Christmas for many of us, is a time of fixed traditions – of that which has its Sacrosanct Place in the year to year cycle of events. It is something we may look forward to, because of that familiarity. We know what it will bring and so may well be a comfort to us. Just like those familiar words, plain for all to see on the sign by the church drive, “God is with us”.

To say that these words have been misused and abused down the years is only to state the obvious. One need only think of how from the latter part of the nineteenth century in Europe and Germany in particular, through to the fall of the Third Reich, these words were emblazoned on helmets and belt buckles and buttons of military uniform – to see this in its most blatant form. But as it is blasphemous so to take the name of the Lord and use it in vain in this way – to attach the name of the Lord to any of our projects and thus Baptise them - so also we must be very careful of reducing those words to the kind of cosy sentiment which years of our Christmas traditions might have done. Matthew uses these familiar words, “God is with us”, from the Prophet Isaiah  - wherein the one who is called Immanuel is not only a sign of a Salvation beyond comprehension, but also a devastating Judgment on the powers that be. You may like to take a look at chapter seven and eight of the prophet Isaiah and read this for yourself. Salvation and Judgment go hand in hand – they are Present to us in Christ, God with us.

The very circumstances of Jesus’ birth, if we are to read the narrative as intended, sees the birth of Christ forcing even the mighty Roman empire to be re-organised, as Bethlehem becomes the epicentre for the action of God. And in response, ‘the powers that be’ are unleashed with demonic force.

‘Herod then with fear was filled – “a prince”, he said “in Jewry”. 

All the little boys he killed at Beth’lem in his fury!’

 Imagine for a moment being someone caught up in all of this – perhaps being forced to travel for a census, or fleeing from Herod’s wrath, or worse, and being told ‘this is because the words of the prophet “God is With Us”, are coming true in this time!’ The story thus takes on a very different hue – this is no sentimental image.

As Mary herself proclaims, the arrival of Immanuel pronounces unimaginable upheaval – “He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away”

Last month I gave some space here to the Beatitudes, amongst them Blessed are those that mourn. As we look out at the world this Christmas it is hard not to mourn. Beset by economic meltdown and turmoil – with ecological mayhem creeping ever closer and military action never far from the surface, we cannot say that the world is in no need of a Saviour. And it is all too easy to fall either into despair, or to close our ears and eyes and turn to our familiar rituals as sources of light against the dark, or indeed once more to try and save ourselves. A sentimental understanding of  “Immanuel” will do little to speak to our need to turn our mourning into dancing.

             One of the chief purposes of Advent is to prepare our hearts and minds for the Only One who can Save us, precisely by reminding us that he is also the Judge. That at the cross Everything is judged and found wanting. The babe of Bethlehem, is the Christ of Calvary, is our Risen and ascended Lord. As my eyes are struggling to open to new realities this Christmas time, blinking in summer sun (I hope! J ), may this Advent prepare in us a home to welcome the one who comes to pronounce God’s Judgment. His NO! upon the world over which we mourn, and only through this to Pronounce his utterly unimaginable YES and so to Save it. For no lesser a Saviour is worth celebrating, in this season or in any other.

So may Christ the Sun of Righteousness shine upon you this Advent, Christmas and Epiphany season, scatter the darkness form before your path, and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory.

Eric