Sermon St Eustachius 9.45 9 January 2022 Epiphany 1 Year C Baptism of Christ
Isaiah 43v1-7         Psalm 29         Acts 8v14-17         Luke 3v15-17, 21-22
Let us Pray:

We have read how the prophet Isaiah could say to the people of Israel the words he heard from God, ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine’. Let me ask you, do you feel that God knows and calls you by name? That God knows you as a special individual, one who is unique to Him, just as you know each one of your children or family as special and unique individuals.

Like those people of Israel, if we know that we are so loved by God, and have been redeemed by him through the death of our Lord Jesus, then we can be assured that God knows each one of us by name, and He is with us no matter what we may have to pass through. In fact the prophet Isaiah assures us that God knows us so intimately that he has craven, written, each of our names on the palm of his hands (Is49v16a), clearly God, metaphorically, has some very large hands. And for the nation of Israel God was even with them as they passed through the testing’s of fire or water, as when they crossed the Red Sea or the river Jordan, and eventually entered into the land that God had promised to them.

Isaiah was convinced that the people of Israel were precious in God’s sight, that God loved them, for like everyone, God has created us all for his glory, and to walk with him all the days of our lives. So let me ask, ‘how can we be assured of God’s love’?.. The answer is in our celebration once again of the birth of our Lord Jesus. Celebrating the unimaginable, of God breaking into his very own created universe, of God becoming incarnate to dwell with us. And why? Because God so loved us and gave his only begotten Son to become one with us humans through his great grace, mercy and love. We Christians are so blessed to know that love of God, and to experience God’s love deep in our hearts.

God in His love come to dwell with us in His Son Jesus so that through Jesus’ death at Calvary we may indeed know and experience his  redeeming grace. A grace long promised of reconciliation for our disobedience to our Hoy God; a grace promised to each one of us who will believe and put our trust in him. It is then that we become restored as God’s ‘image bearers’, restored to declare the glory of God’s coming kingdom to this our present and needy world.

But first before Jesus redeeming death and glorious resurrection, in great humility, Jesus subjected himself to baptism by his cousin John. John however was somewhat reluctantly to baptise Jesus with all the others who came to him just below Jericho at a place called bethabara. A place shown very clearly on the ancient Madaba map on the shore of the river Jordan, and probably in the early months of AD 28.
That site has only recently been reopened to tourists in 2010 following the clearance of many land mines along this sensitive border with Jordan.

It was there that John saw the Holy Spirit of God descend upon Jesus like a dove-the symbol of peace and of the Holy Spirit. In St John’s gospel (1v31-34) we read of John the Baptist’s mission, ‘For this purpose I came baptising with water, that he-the Messiah-might be revealed to Israel’. God had said to John, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptises with the Holy Spirit’. After seeing the Spirit descend and remain on his cousin, John could testify, ‘this is the Son of God’. ‘Following his baptism Jesus was then immediately driven by the Holy Spirit into the nearby Judean wilderness to be tempted for forty long days by the evil one.

That symbol of a dove took on special significance when Joy and I stood in Jerusalem at the western, or wailing wall, and saw a dove nestled in the 2000 year old stones of the Temple mount. It seemed as if here was the Spirit of God hovering over the people of God, and like us all, longing for the peace which is still yet to come to that holy city.

Early theologians wrestled with the question as to why Jesus submitted to John in baptism, for John’s baptism was one of repentance from sin, and Jesus had no need of repentance for he was the ‘spotless lamb of God who was to take away the sin of the world’. True, Jesus had no need of repentance, but he did come to fulfil, or complete, the Jewish law, and so by submitting to this baptism Jesus enabled the people around him to recognise just who he was. St Matthew, like St John, also records this revelation to John the Baptist when he declares, “he who is coming after me is mightier than I, he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”.

By submitting to baptism Jesus gave to us a number of images that enable us more fully to understand his mission. First is a call for us all to follow Jesus in our own baptism. As we do we identify as members of his body, the church, and we become like Him ‘a beloved son or daughter of God’.
Some believe that the words actually heard at Jesus’ baptism which St Mark records as “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased”, are in fact a paraphrase of the words recorded in Isaiah 42, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations”. And those words fit well with the mission of Jesus, a mission to bring justice and righteousness to the nations. Should it not also be our mission as followers of Jesus to do the same? To work for justice for all people. If we could but capture that vision, like William Wilberforce and other great Christians who have gone before us, could we not see a transformation in this war torn, famine stricken and oppressed world in which we live?

Do we have enough faith to think that we, you and I, can change things? The question is are we prepared to become the agents of that change? Do we want to? When was the last time you wrote to the news media in response to some anti Christian legislation, or asked your MP, I know ours has been notably missing, to make a stand in parliament for Christian values? Values that will benefit all of human kind no matter what their background. Remember it has been said, “all that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.”

Jesus baptism also creates for us a second image, that of the crossing of the Red Sea at the start of the journey of salvation for the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. That crossing symbolised a death to the old life in Egypt, and a resurrection to the new life ahead.
So in our baptism we are reminded that we were buried with Christ, that we have died to our old life, and have been raised to a new life. Raised to a life to be lived in the power and at the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who is God’s presence with us as comforter, seal and guide, who and comes to dwell with us to bring the fulness of life itself.

It is our sure hope that we have been once and for all redeemed by the death of our Lord Jesus, delivered from our sins once we put our trust in Jesus and commit to follow him. It is then that God sends the Holy Spirit to dwell with us as a guarantee of our new relationship with Him. A relationship that will extend into, and throughout, eternity as we follow God’s path for each one of us during our remaining time in this present world. Our life becomes a constant journey of salvation, of change and transformation, until we shall be finally united with Jesus in heaven, or remain to meet with him in the clouds when he returns in great glory.

This image of us as a new creation as we rise from the waters of baptism, as we rise to a new beginning brought about by the Holy Spirit of God, is so appropriate as we start yet another new year. In our prayers let us not be afraid to seek the change that God still has in store for each one of us as we deepen our walk with him.

It reminds us of the first creation that we read of in the book of Genesis, that time when the Holy Spirit of God brooded over the face of the earth and brought forth life. Now that same Holy Spirit brings about a new life in us, a profound transformation of our lives. A transformation so that we may experience the promise recorded by Saint John in his gospel (Jn10v10) when Jesus said that as Christians we are to have ‘a full and abundant life’.

That abundant life is what the world should see in us as God’s ‘image bearers’, an abundant life that attracts them to join with us on the adventure of our faith and walk with our Lord Jesus Christ.

After all that we have been through these previous two years, what better tonic could we ask than to experience God’s abundant life in the coming year.
Could there be any better adventure ahead as we start 2022?

Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognise him as our Lord, and know ourselves to be your beloved children; your ‘image bearers’, experiencing a full and abundant life, we ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.                   Amen

Sermon St Eustachius 9.45 26 December 2021 Christmas 1 Year C Stephen martyr
2 Chronicles 24v20-22         (Psalm 119v161-168)         Acts 7v51-60   Matthew 10v17-22         Let us Pray:

Well, I guess we have all survived. Christmas really has come and now almost gone yet again? And what have we actually achieved? Yes, an extra inch around the waist, some precious time with family and special friends, and for those of us who make up the household of God, a wonderful remembrance of the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
But what next? The time for new year resolutions perhaps, but that will have to wait a few more days.

So, as we wait, I wonder what common points you found in our readings this morning?
Maybe what struck you was the significant difference in the ending of our reading from 2 Chronicles, about the death of Zechariah, and the last words of Saint Stephen as he was being martyred?
Zachariah, as he was being martyred said what? ‘May the Lord see, and avenge’. Although we know that God said very clearly, ‘Vengeance is mine’, (Deut 32v35), Zachariah’s words starkly contrast with the final words of Stephen, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’.
But do those words of Stephen remind you of anything else? What did our Lord pray as he was dying upon Calvary’s cross? ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23v34).
Such an amazing contrast, and we need to ask ourselves what made that contrast possible?

I am sure we have all heard stories after some deadly assault or murder, of such contrasting responses as, ‘I can never forgive that person’, and yet others can say despite their pain and much trauma, ‘I forgive them’. I pray that we shall never be put in such a position, but how would we respond?

Saint Paul addresses this question when writing to the Christians in Rome (Rom 12v19) where has says that as Christians we are to ‘overcome evil with good’. Does that seem possible to you? Many will say, easier said than done, true, for without the help and presence of God’s Holy Spirit that may well be the case.

But did you notice that there was a second common factor running through our readings. Zachariah, as an Old Testament saint had experienced the Spirit of God with him, but we read that Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit, and of course that was supremely true of our Lord Jesus.
So is there a lesson from Stephens experience for us Christians this morning? A lesson of how to live out our lives to the full as God intended for each one us? How may we have the great hope of the gospel resonating in our hearts? Clearly, we need to be like Stephen, to be full of God’s Holy Spirit.
And that is so necessary for our persecuted brothers and sisters to survive amidst all the hostility that they so often have to experience and endure.

In our reading from Matthew this morning, that hostility was something Jesus had to prepare the early disciples for telling them that, ‘they will hand you over to councils and flog you’, and sadly that has been something which has not diminished down through the ages for true believers, for true followers of our Lord. Stephen may have been the first of our fellow believers to be martyred, but sadly it did not stop with him. The presence and witness to the truth that we Christians have always been called to declare makes us prime targets for attack in an ‘anti God’ society. It was true, and that is still especially true, in many communist and other repressive regimes today, and does not seem to be diminishing.

Saint John in his Revelation issued a call for ‘the endurance of the saints’ (Rev 14v12), and John saw under the altar of God in heaven, the souls of those who had been killed for the word of God and for the witness they had borne (Rev 6v9). In heaven those faithful believers no doubt see our Lord Jesus standing at Gods right hand, just as Stephen saw in his dying vision. They now wait in expectation of that day when they, together with us, shall all be like our Lord Jesus as we share in his glory. Can we yet even begin to grasp the magnitude of that promise? I wonder, is that your hope and expectation as another new year begins?

Joy and I have been reading a most challenging book, and if you start reading it, you will not be able to put it down. It contains the testimonies of women who risk all for their faith in our Lord Jesus in antagonistic middle eastern countries. Yet despite enormous risks, and possible death, these women have become firm followers of the Lord, living on the very edge they seek to spread the good news of the gospel.
Let us pray for strength and faithfulness, that like them we may live to declare the hope and joy that Jesus came to bring to all humankind through his birth in that little town of Bethlehem some two thousand years ago.

Let us Pray: A prayer written at the conclusion of psalm 97 in daily prayer
Most high and holy God, enthroned in fire and light, burn away the dross of our lives and kindle in us the fire of your love, that our lives may reveal to all around the light and life we find only in your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily Christmas Eve/Day St Mary & St Peter          24/25 December 2021Year C
Isaiah 52v7-10         (Psalm 98)         Hebrews 1v1-4 [5-12]         John 1v1-14

On this Holy of (nights-Day), I wish to pose to you a question.
What do you regard as the most significant event in all of human history?

Would you answer with Genesis 1, ‘God said “let there be light”, or as a physicist I prefer to say, “let there be electromagnetic radiation”. Possibly, for without the big bang, the universe, you and I would have no being.
Or would your answer be with some great figure or grand event from history? Who or what would then be your response I wonder?
Or maybe you would respond with what we are here to celebrate on this holy of all (nights -days)? The pivotal and turning point of history, that time when God, the one who set our universe into being, compacted himself into the holy babe, born of Mary, in Bethlehem.

The incarnation, as we Anglicans like to call the birth of Jesus, is a far greater mystery than the physics of quantum mechanics for can you, can I, ever conceive of how God could become a human being? How could the ‘Word’, the way Saint John in our reading referred to Jesus, the Son of God, become a living human being?

Certainly God, as Genesis tells us, has amazingly created us in his own image, to be his ‘image bearers’ in this world, now there is a good topic to debate over Christmas dinner. Our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Church like to express it in this way, ‘God became man so that man could become like God’, created so we could share in the future glory of the God who created all things. Now that is another good topic for conversation. But how and why did God choose to enter into this his physical creation, and at that pivotal point in human history some two millennia ago?

We may not be able to answer the question how, but we can see why. God chose to extended His grace, mercy and love to us, so that we who have rebelled against His ways and gone off along our own paths, may hear the good news of our reconciliation. In our reading from Hebrews the writer described how God decided to send Jesus to speak to us and to make His plan for our reconciliation possible.

We read in the Old Testament prophets how God made king David, despite all his short comings, a man after God’s own heart, and a prince over his people Israel. So God made Jesus, that babe born this happy morning in Bethlehem, the city of David, a saviour for all humankind. But God will one coming day also make Jesus the prince and ruler over all the nations of the world, at the time when Jesus comes again as Messiah and Lord.

St John in his gospel tells us how John the Baptist told us how to prepare ourselves for that time of Jesus coming, he called us all to repent. Sadly there is inside us humans a rebellion to God’s ways so that we need to repent, to ‘turn about’, to seek God above all else. So can we this Christmas commit ourselves to following after Jesus in our everyday lives?

If so then I hope that as we sung in our carol, ‘O little town of Bethlehem’, the truth of the words ‘where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in’, will take on new meaning for each one of us.
What God longs to see in each of our lives is a commitment to follow Him, and His ways.
If you only grasp just one thing from our service this holy (night-day), may it be that God has a phenomenal purpose for each of our lives if we will but humble ourselves and trust and believe in Jesus as our Lord and Master. God has given to us brothers and sisters, a hope that transcends anything that we can possibly desire or imagine.

Some 21 years ago, on Christmas eve, I was in Manger square in that now, not so little, town of Bethlehem. It was full of hope and expectation of many good things ahead, and much investment was flowing into the Palestinian economy. Much of the infrastructure of the town had been rebuilt, the economy was growing, and there was reasonable freedom of movement both in and out. Then came the second Palestinian intifada, and all changed.
When I returned in 2005, entering Bethlehem was then through a gap in a 6m high concrete wall, and with greatly increased security. The image of ‘O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see you lie’, was in an instant shattered.

Since then those Christians who remain living in Bethlehem, where once the Christian population were in the majority, have become and feel isolated, as there has been an exodus of Christian families from within it. Where now is the hope, the peace and the goodwill between men heralded at the birth of that babe born within its midst?

Yet we as Christians know that it is not man who will dictate the final outcome of human history, and so we can take hope even through all that we see going on around us across the world. God has a plan of redemption, reconciliation, for you, for me, and for all the nations of His world so do not lose heart or hope at all the bad news in the media. God will finally make his purpose of peace and righteousness happen for all. And that through the return of the babe born this happy morn.

The God who said, let there be light, and flung the stars into the vast expanse of space, is still at the helm of His universe despite man’s best attempts to dislodge him. Pray through all the political correctness, that once again the will and purpose of the one true and living God may be heard and impact everyone’s life.
So let us join in with the heavenly host, with all the angels, and with our countless brothers and sisters around this world as today we praise God this joyful Christmas morn.

Let us thank God for his wondrous gift of the baby Jesus, so silently given in Bethlehem, God’s own son foretold by the prophets, and soon to be King Messiah and ruler over all the world.
Let us thank God for his free gift to you and to me of forgiveness for all our wrongdoings, and of a hope that we shall enjoy a place being prepared for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. But right now God has a job for you and for me, a job building his kingdom of peace, justice and righteousness in our stumbling society. Let us work to hasten the day when that transformation will be fully realised at the return of our Lord Jesus.

Yes, the birth of that babe, together with Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection, will for ever remain, the most significant events in human history, for they provide us with hope. Hope, not just for this night, but for all eternity if we but let the holy child of Bethlehem, come to us, abide with us, and be born in us today.
Now for a suffering, weary and war-torn world, that’s what I call a real Christmas present.                  Amen