Sunday, December 22, 2013

A Dangerous Birth




A Sermon preached on Sunday, December 22 (The Fourth Sunday of Advent) at Church of the Ascension, Munich

Psalm 80:1-7; 17-19, Isaiah 7:10-16, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25



You might have noticed a change of focus with today’s readings. The previous three Advent Sundays we were mostly looking into the future. The Epistles helped us reflect on how we should prepare ourselves for Christ’s Second Coming and Isaiah’s wonderful visions gave us a hint of what God’s Kingdom will be like. But this week, just three days before we commemorate the event, all three readings focus on the Incarnation, on the birth of a child to be called Emmanuel, born of a young woman or of a virgin, descended from the royal House of David.

The reading from Matthew’s Gospel is actually quite a dangerous passage. When I was at university in Leeds, a long time ago, one of the professors of theology was a David Jenkins. I was not studying theology in those days, that strange idea came much later, but I knew him as he worshipped at the Anglican chaplaincy as I did. Just two years after I graduated he was chosen to be Bishop of Durham and then became both famous and infamous very quickly. First by publicly asserting that, among other things, the Virgin birth need be taken too literally. Then, just three days after his consecration as Bishop of Durham in York Minster, that ancient cathedral was hit by lightning, supposedly a bolt of lightning that came out of a  completely clear and cloudless sky, and the wooden roof of the Minster's 13th century south transept was destroyed by fire. For many people this was a sign from on high: God was not pleased with this cleric! So out of respect for our hosts here at Emmaus church I suppose I had better be careful about what I now say about the Virgin birth as described in today’s Gospel and announced in Isaiah? Actually, if God was to burn down every church in which a preacher told people that some aspect of the Biblical narrative, whether the Virgin birth, or miracles like walking on water or the feeding of the 5000, was not to be taken literally, then I fear we would not have many Anglican churches left….

So let’s take a risk, keeping the fire extinguishers handy, and talk about the Virgin birth.

Is it necessary for Christianity? Would our faith fall apart if Mary had not just been with child from the Holy Spirit, but if her husband Joseph had also been involved? The short answer is, NO it wouldn’t. St. Paul managed to write a lot of very foundational letters, established many churches, and converted many people without once mentioning the Virgin birth. In fact, just like the authors of the Gospels according to Mark and John, he doesn’t describe the birth of Jesus at all. Jesus was, as we heard in today’s Epistle, descended from David according to the flesh. But even more important for Paul was that Jesus “was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:3-4) For Paul the resurrection was a more important sign of God’s power and intervention than the circumstances of Jesus’ birth.

Is the Virgin birth possible? One claim made is that of course in those days, 2000 years ago, people were ignorant and gullible about such things and therefore found it easy to believe in virgin births. Well no, as C. S. Lewis once pointed out, “the reason Joseph was worried about Mary’s pregnancy was not because he didn’t know where babies came from but because he did.”[1] It took an angel to convince him that this baby was from the Holy Spirit!  I can understand why atheists, like my favorite Richard Dawkins, think a Virgin birth is impossible (though modern genetic science is coming close). But Christians? We believe in a God who is the creator of everything, who is timeless and beyond time, yet this omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being is not capable of arranging for a Virgin birth? Really? Let me quote the Qur’an on this topic. From Surah 19, verses 20-21: “(Mary) said: ‘Shall I have a boy, when no man has touched me and I have not been an unchaste woman?’ (The Angel) said: ‘This it will be, your Lord has said: ‘This is an easy matter for Me, that We may make (the boy) a sign unto mankind and a Mercy from us.’”[2]

Is the Virgin birth important? Well, Matthew must have had a good reason for even mentioning it. He’s taking a risk with this account of a birth without male human intervention; he's opening it up to sneers and innuendo. So perhaps there really was something strange or unique around Jesus’ birth that needed explaining, as both Luke and Matthew do in their different accounts either from Mary’s or as we heard today from Joseph’s perspective.

But even more important is the message or meaning of the Virgin birth for our faith. For one thing, it addresses the question of Jesus’ legitimacy and authority. Where did his power to teach, to heal and to save come from? Although, as I said, Paul does not mention the virgin birth, these are still important issues for him too. So he begins his letter to the Christians in Rome with the statement that he serves “the gospel concerning (God’s) Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:3-4) In Paul’s day son of god was not an exclusive title, for example Caesar was also referred to as a son of god. But Paul is telling his readers, in Rome, the capital of the Empire, that only Jesus is the real Son of the real God. Firstly because he is descended, as a human, from a royal house much older than Rome, the House of David, instituted by God and is heir to the promises God made to that House. Secondly because his Resurrection is sign of a power above anything in the world: God’s power. So Jesus is the world’s true Lord.

Matthew has a similar interest and approach. Just before today’s passage, in verse 1-17 of chapter 1, he provides a long account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. “Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, ……” and so on over another fourteen verses. How strange that we don’t read this passage often in church….! Its purpose is to link Jesus not just to the royal house of David, as we saw in Paul’s letter, but even further, right back to the patriarchs. This is one source of Jesus’ authority: he will fulfill the promises God made to Israel and throughout Israel’s history.

In Matthew, the Holy Spirit is active not just in the resurrection but already at Jesus’ birth. It is an expression of God’s direct and personal involvement in this event and in all our lives. According to Scripture, God had intervened in other unexpected births. Isaac’s, Samuel’s, and John the Baptist’s were only possible because God had intervened, but they still had both human fathers and mothers. The miraculous circumstances of Jesus’ birth are a sign that this is different, even more special, or unique. God has not just sent another prophet. Instead, as the name Immanuel tells us, God is with us, God is present and active in the world, and not just intervening from a distance.  The name Joseph gives the boy, Jesus or Joshua, meaning ‘God saves’ or simply ‘God. Help!’ tells us that the purpose of God’s direct intervention in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ, is to save us - mostly from ourselves.

To do this, to fulfill the promises of these names, Jesus cannot just be a good human. The Virgin birth stands for the essential truth that God took the initiative and did inconceivable or supposedly impossible things. Like becoming human, living a fully human life, suffering and dying and conquering death for us all.

One more thought. “Mary … was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” This is the same Spirit of God that moved over the waters, forming order out of chaos, in the creation story in Genesis. This tells us that the Incarnation, through God’s Spirit, is the inception of a new creation. Jesus’ birth stands for a fresh start for the world and for each and every one of us who is willing to live as a citizen of God’s Kingdom.

If we take Scripture seriously, which I think is far more important than taking it literally, then this passage from Matthew really is dangerous. It tells us that God is passionately interested in our lives and willing to intervene, to be involved, and to change our lives, if we allow God to do so. If we let Jesus in, he will do new things within our hearts and lives – which is awesome both in the colloquial sense, fantastic or great, and in the original sense, frightening or terrifying.

Nelson Mandela, whose body was laid to rest at the beginning of the week, after ten days of commemoration and celebration, believed in a God who is with us, in a God who is present and active in the world. Mandela was willing to let Jesus in to do new things within his heart and life. Sentenced to life imprisonment by the Apartheid regime, he came out of prison not bitter and looking for revenge, but as Archbishop Tutu said: "Like a most precious diamond honed deep beneath the surface of the earth, the Madiba who emerged from prison was virtually flawless. Instead of calling for his pound of flesh, he proclaimed the message of forgiveness and reconciliation.”[3] And one tribute I read by a former prison chaplain[4] described how during a Communion service in prison Nelson Mandela went over to the young, white, Boer warder on watch and asked him: "Brand, are you a Christian?" "Yes," the warder responded. "Well then, you must take off your cap, and join us round this table. You cannot sit apart. This is Holy Communion, and we must share and receive it together." Which the warden did! Nelson Mandela let Jesus renew and change him, and then through him others were transformed.  [In a moment, as our tribute to Mandela, we will sing the hymn God bless Africa written by Trevor Huddleston, an anti-apartheid activist and Anglican bishop.]

But I started this sermon with one Bishop of Durham, so let me finish with another, later Bishop of Durham: Tom Wright. “We have been made new with a life which death cannot touch, a life which will lighten our path through whatever darkness lies ahead, a life which doesn’t spring from mere human possibilities.”[5] I think that this offer of new life for us all is the most important meaning of this special birth we will soon celebrate. The birth of the Son of God, named ‘God with us’ and ‘Savior.’
Amen


[1] Quoted in http://ntwrightpage.com/sermons/Christmas07.htm
[2] Majid Fakhry, An Interpretation of the Qur’an (New York: New York University Press, 2004), 303
[3] http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2013/13-december/news/world/week-of-international-tributes-to-nelson-mandela
[4] Harry Wiggett quoted in Church Times 13.12.2013
[5]   http://ntwrightpage.com/sermons/Christmas07.htm

Monday, December 16, 2013

Are you ready?



Sermon preached on Sunday, December 15 at St. James the Less, Nuremberg


Advent 3: Isaiah 35:1-10, James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11
  

So, are you ready?
How is your preparation for Christmas coming along? Have you bought all your presents – I haven’t yet: though I do know what I want to get for my wife, which is a good start. Have you baked the cake? Have you sent all your cards? Have you ordered your turkey or whatever it is you have for your Christmas Dinner? If you can answer yes to all these questions then you are really well prepared. 

And how is your spiritual preparation for Christmas coming along? Today is the 3rd Sunday of Advent so we are three quarters of the way through this season the Church has set apart for us to get ready, to prepare for the celebration of the birth of our Lord. But it’s not too late to start. You might consider saying a prayer, silent or aloud, when you light the candles on your Advent wreath. Or like in Lent, that other much longer season of preparation, you might want to take on a spiritual discipline. I’m reading this book for Advent, a collection of poems, one for each day until Epiphany, with a reflection and a question for self-reflection.[1] And in Advent we really should also be reflecting on ourselves: who do we need to ask for forgiveness for some wrong or some omission, and who do we need to forgive? 

Whatever you do, make sure that your preparation includes time to think about what it means that God, God almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, sent God’s Son to us, that he became a human being, that he shared our human lot. Two thousand years after the event we tend to take it for granted and forget just how unexpected and – literally – incredible this was and is. When in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew Jesus says “blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me” that is what he is referring to: blessed is the one who does not take offence, who is not shocked that Jesus is not doing what everyone expected the Messiah to do. That he did not come in power and glory and as a ruler with an army to liberate Israel, but as one who heals and cares and forgives and embodies God’s love and liberates the whole world – but not by force.

Now it is comparatively easy to prepare for something we know is coming, like Christmas, for something with a fixed date: December 25th. It’s especially easy when we have things like Advent wreaths and calendars to help us count down to the date. Each candle, each door brings us a little closer. We can’t miss it.

But how are we supposed to prepare for Christ’s second coming if we don’t know when it will be? Because that is also what Advent is about. Two weeks ago we heard that “about that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36) and that “the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” (Matthew 24:44) and in this week’s Epistle, James has to tell his readers to be patient until the coming of the Lord. It is near, he tells them, but the time and date are still unknown.

We certainly know what awaits us. Each week in Advent the Old Testament lessons have been presented us with a magnificent vision of what we are waiting for:
Advent 1: a vision of peace. Swords will be beaten into ploughshares and no one will learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:1-5)
Advent 2: a kingdom of justice, prosperity, and righteousness – without fear in which the wolf shall live with the lamb (Isaiah 11:1-10)
Advent 3:  a place of everlasting joy and gladness in which “sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:1-10).

So it is definitely something to look forward to! But how do we prepare for an event like the Second Coming? How do we prepare for the Advent of the Kingdom of God?

First let us not forget that the Kingdom is not just some future event, it is also very present. Jesus inaugurated it during his time on earth. He tells John’s disciples to tell John that Isaiah’s prophecy of healing for the sick and good news for the poor is already being fulfilled. Right relationships with God and with one another are not something that has to wait until the End of Days.

Our role therefore is not just patient waiting. Instead we are called to be active participants in the work of building up the Kingdom of God; we have a role to play in its preparation. Jesus empowered his disciples, whose successors we all are, to carry on his work in the world. Both Jesus, talking about John the Baptist, and James hold up prophets as examples of what is expected of us. What does that mean? Thankfully not that we have to take John’s dress sense, a coat of camel’s hair, or his diet of locusts an wild honey as examples: But certainly his single mindedness and focus and his actions.

When James tells his readers to take the prophets “who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience,” (James 5:10) he does not mean that they have to wait patiently and passively. Prophets did not wait, they acted! They still needed to be patient, as we do, because God’s message does not always get through first time – or second – or third – etc. What message might that be? Well the prophet Isaiah for example, from whom we have heard so much during Advent, called for economic and social justice, he prophesied against those who deprived the needy and robbed the poor. He promised salvation for all, to be brought by one who would both serve and suffer. While he was not shy to warn and admonish, he also never stopped preaching a message of hope.

John the Baptist too warned and told those who came to see him and be baptized by him that they needed to change their ways, to repent. He stood up against the powerful of his day and spoke the truth regardless of the, in his case fatal, consequences. He too promised salvation and forgiveness. He announced that one much greater would follow him – one who would suffer and serve and save.

That folks is what we are called to do to prepare the Kingdom of God - when we take the prophets as our example. Never to be silent about injustice, to work actively for justice and peace, to tell people about the promise of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ, to announce the one who came to serve, who suffered and who saves, and to be beacons of hope in the world.

We do this through what we say and even more through what we do. When John’s disciples ask Jesus if he is the one who is to come he doesn’t launch into a long theological discourse but simply points to his deeds. We are all called to show others what a difference Jesus makes in our lives. We don’t want people to follow us, but to follow the one we follow. That is how we prepare the way of the Lord.

So, are you ready?
Amen


[1] Janet Morley, Haphazard by Starlight, SPCK 2103