The New York author, Madeleine L’Engle, once commented:
‘I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.’
As we continue to examine the portrait of Jesus in John’s Gospel, we read of the time when he was approached by a father whose young son was dangerously ill. The man who was an officer in Herod the Tetrarch’s service, lived in Capernaum. Hearing that Jesus was in Cana, he went to see him.
Read –John 4:46-54
Then Jesus (he) came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. 51 As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” 53 The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. 54 Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Reflect – Jesus regularly challenged people around him with the unexpected. Consider his response to the official’s question: “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” With these words he was throwing out a challenge to everyone listening (you,is plural) to ask themselves whether he was someone they could really trust – not just in life’s good times, but also in the tough times. It is the question Jesus asks each of us. Is he worthy of our trust? Can I trust him at the deepest level?
Look at the official’s response: “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” And what did Jesus say? “Go; your son will live.” Apart from his words, Jesus gave the man no assurance. Yet the father believed him. What a test of the father’s faith! Would we have had such a faith?
As he went home the man learned that his son was completely healed at the hour Jesus had spoken – 1:00PM. Jesus had the extraordinary power to heal a sick boy, even at distance. The repetition of “Your son will live” in verses 50 and 53 emphasizes this. Consequently, the whole family believed. For them Jesus was more than a miracle worker.
This was a second sign pointing to Jesus’ unique power, a power we can only associate with God. John wants us to know that Jesus is God in the flesh – glory personified. God welcomes anyone whose faith in Jesus is real, small though that faith may be.
Prayer – Almighty God, you wonderfully created us in your own image and have now more wonderfully rescued and restored us. Grant us, we pray, that as your Son our Lord Jesus Christ was made in our likeness, so may we share his divine nature; we ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (1978 AAPB, Second Sunday after Christmas — adapted)
The call by extremists within Islam for individual terrorist acts against the West gives us pause. ‘Is it safe to go anywhere these days – even shopping?’ we ask. Rightly, governments charged with the responsibility of ensuring the security of their citizens, will want to take steps to do so. But the rise of radical Islam also challenges us to consider better ways to help Muslims understand the core statements of Christianity. Sadly, for centuries contact between Christianity and the Muslim world has been unfortunate. Ancient churches that survived in the Middle East tended to be weak and ineffective; and with the Crusades of the Middle Ages the followers of Jesus Christ took up arms in a way that Jesus himself condemned. Further, in times when they did succeed in battle, their witness was little different from that of their foes.
As well as developing a lifestyle consistent with the New Testament ethic and praying for opportunities to ask people around us what they believe, we need to have a clearer understanding of our own faith so we can share it. Indeed, we need an ever-clearer understanding of Jesus and a confidence in him. This is one reason I am addressing the ‘signs’ of Jesus that we find in John’s Gospel.
Read
John 2:1-11
1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. 9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Reflect
Quality wine. The wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee had run out and Jesus’ mother approached him to do something about it. He protested, saying his ‘hour had not yet come’.
But he did go ahead with an astonishing miracle that day, providing the best quality wine from water. Just imagine how this event might be tweeted today.
A Sign. John the Apostle tells us that Jesus’ act of turning water into wine was the first sign he performed. Seeing God’s handiwork in this remarkable event (2:11), Jesus’ first followers began to understand that he was God’s Messiah. As they grew to know him better – it was for them, as it is for us, a process – they recognized the miracle that day pointed to his unique power as well as the glory and joy of the coming messianic age.
But they also began to learn that before the messianic age came in all its fullness, other things had to happen first. The wine at the wedding was only Scene One in God’s drama. Supremely, Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God needed to deal with our deepest need – the restoration of our broken relationship with God, something we cannot achieve ourselves.
We live on the other side of the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection. As we wait for his return in all his glory, he expects us to take up opportunities to introduce others to him as more than a prophet, God’s true Messiah, who came and lived amongst us as one of us.
Prayer
Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen. (1978 AAPB, A Prayer for the Gospel)
Today is known in the church calendar as Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent. Traditionally, it is an important time of preparation for Easter. In the northern hemisphere it is when the season changes from the darkness of winter to the delights of longer days and the new life of spring. It can be a time to reflect on what God has done for us in bringing us from the winter of life without him to the new life he holds out to us through the events of the first Good Friday and Easter. Some people find it helpful to make Lent a time of going without (fasting), enabling them to be more focused on their life with God. It begins with Ash Wednesday and continues through to the Saturday before Easter – this year from today, Wednesday, February 18 until Saturday, April 4.
ANGLICAN LENT
Given the increasing readership of the ‘Word on Wednesday’, I am preparing a weekly ‘Word’ this Lent on the ‘signs’ we find in the Gospel of St John. Following an introduction, I will include the relevant text from John, after which I will make a brief comment. Each week I will also include a prayer, a collect, adapted from the English 1662 Book of Common Prayer. You might like to use the season of Lent to read through the whole of John’s Gospel – when did you last do this? You may want to read half a chapter a day – which will take you through to Easter.
While I would not normally encourage anyone to read the last pages of a book before they begin, let me make an exception, because it is helpful to know what St John the Apostle had in mind when he wrote his Gospel. He tells us this in chapter 20:31:
These things are written so that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Ash Wednesday – 2015
Last week I indicated that church attendance in the USA is in decline. Currently it is less than twenty percent. What is more, this percentage is significantly lower amongst the ‘millennial’ generation. Yet there is a ray of hope amongst the millennials, for just under eighty percent believe the orthodox statements of Christianity, including the belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. At a point when the pundits want us to believe that science is in the ascendancy and Christianity is in serious decline, the reality is that many people still believe the facts. So, how do we move people from ‘knowledge’ to a vital faith and involvement in God’s church?
The starting point must always be helping them to meet the Jesus of the Gospel records, for Christianity is not about our search for God through reason or experience, but our encountering God through his revelation to us.
Read
Come with me to John 1:1ff:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Reflect
With his opening verses, John introduces us to ‘the Word’. John tells us who the Word is and from where he comes. We learn that he is truly God (1:1), eternal (1:2), the creator of all things and the source of our existence (1:3); he opens our eyes as well as opening the way to the spiritual dimension of life (1:4). He was God, and yet with God – by himself the Word is not the full complement of the Godhead.
With such a profound theological preamble, verse 14 is shockingly tangible! The Word of God, whose very nature and existence is eternally divine, has taken on human form. John is telling us that he and his fellow apostles saw what Moses only glimpsed, namely, the glory of God personified. For the first time in history, God had revealed himself in person (1:18). The grace and truth of God had become incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ.
But there is an ironic tragedy: left to ourselves we reject the Word and his light. We prefer to live in the darkness of our own egos. We need God’s work of grace within us to open our eyes to the truth (1:5-13).
In his opening section (1:1-14), John introduces us to a counterintuitive idea: the religion of the Bible is not about our search for God, but God’s search for us. He is telling of a ladder that God has let down from heaven to us (1:51). Christianity is not a religion of our discovery but of God’s initiative. It is not about our attainment, but God’s reaching out to us. It is not about our research but God’s revelation. It is a religion, not of works, but of God’s mercy.
Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made, and you forgive the sins of all who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, so that we, lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, Ash Wednesday)
One of the significant disagreements within the Christian Church over the last five hundred years has been over the sacraments. The Catechism in the English (1662) Book of Common Prayer defines a sacrament as
an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ Himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.
It is a sign, a means, and a pledge.
It is a sign in that it represents or points to something beyond itself. While it is not the thing itself there is a similarity or a similitude between the sign and the thing signified. In the Lord’s Supper the similitude is in the nourishing, in that as bread nourishes our physical body, so Christ’s body broken feeds our soul.
Also, as the bread we eat in the Lord’s Supper is a sharing in one loaf of bread (we usually forget this today), so we who eat are one body in Christ – as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:17.
Furthermore, as we eat the bread and drink the wine, Christ through his Spirit, draws his people into his presence and into fellowship with him in heaven. It is something we can’t verbalize, but we partake of all the benefits he has won for us when his body was broken and his blood was shed at Calvary.
SACRAMENTS
The sacraments are linked to God’s Word. Without this they would be dumb signs. The sacraments visibly present the promises of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which we have heard. The sacraments make visible what is preached. Christ himself authorized this when he added his teaching and his promises, his word, to the physical elements of the bread and the wine in the Lord’s Supper, thus transforming the bread and the wine into a sacrament.
The sacrament is a means of grace. When, and only when, we believe the promise of the gospel do we spiritually benefit as we partake of the Lord’s Supper. In this instance, believing is seeing since we see the word of God’s promise as a visible word in the sacrament. The Lord’s Supper is an outward and visible guarantee or pledge of our faith in Christ. To paraphrase Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s words: ‘As the bread, which is only a signification and figure, is eaten, our souls are fed and nourished with the spiritual benefits of Christ’s flesh and blood to eternal life.
The sacrifice for sin is complete. None of this means the physical substance of the bread and wine changes (transubstantiation), nor does it mean that Christ is physically present in the elements. As God-man, he is in heaven. This is the reason we exhort each other to ‘Lift up our hearts’ – we are to lift them up to where Christ Jesus is, in heaven. Furthermore, the Letter to the Hebrews is clear that the priestly and sacrificial work of Christ has been completed once and for all time (Hebrews 10:11-14). There is no need, indeed it subverts the meaning of Jesus’ death at Calvary, to repeat, re-present, or re-offer the sacrifice of Christ in the Communion.
In his second prayer book (1552), which stands behind the English 1662 BCP, Thomas Cranmer was keen to remove all ambiguity and set out clearly God’s gospel. So he took out words calling out for the Spirit to come upon the elements (the epiclesis). Appropriately, a prayer for the Spirit to come upon God’s people is at the beginning of the service. He also removed words that gave any impression of our offering anything for our salvation.
When we come to the Lord’s Supper we remember with grateful hearts what Jesus did on our behalf when he was crucified. We benefit now when, by faith, we are nourished spiritually by Christ, being drawn into his presence and into a conscious and joyful fellowship with his people. Furthermore, as we eat the bread and drink of the cup we look ahead to the day when we shall eat and drink with Christ and his people when he comes in the glory of his kingdom.
No wonder Paul the Apostle commands us to prepare before coming to the Lord’s Table: Let everyone examine themselves, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup (1 Corinthians 11:28).
Research presented at the Anglican Connection Conference held at Beeson Divinity School last October revealed that average church attendance in the United States is less than twenty percent. This is less than half what research had indicated fifteen to twenty years ago. And indicators point to an ongoing downward trend over the next decade. One interesting statistic that emerged is the increasing number of people who profess to be Christian yet who see no need of church. How contrary this is to the picture we find in the Bible.
In 1 John 4:7 we read:
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
The phrase, love one another threads through the following verses. In verse 7 we are exhorted to love one another; in verse 11, we have a duty to love one another; and in verse 12, it becomes a test, ‘if we love one another…’ It echoes Jesus’ new command that all who follow him should ‘love another’ (John 13:34).
Why is it so important that we love one another? Why, by implication, should we be involved with others who profess to be Christian? Indeed, why should we be involved in church? John’s answer is bound up with the subject of last week’s Word – ‘Love’. ‘God’s love’.
AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY
John is saying in verse 7 that anyone who does not practice love in their relationships, especially their relationships with God’s people, does not know God. It is not enough simply to say we know God. Authentic Christianity is about living out the love of God within us.
Evidence of God’s love is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, John tells us. And he goes on to draw out the implications of this in 4:11: Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. The gift of God’s love lays an obligation on us.
No one who truly responds to what Jesus Christ did for them when he died on the cross can go back to a life dominated by Self. The implication is that just as God has made such a costly sacrifice for us, so too his people should be willing to make costly sacrifices for one another.
In this remarkable chapter John tells us why we are to love one another and, by implication, why we need to be involved in and committed to a church. God’s love that originates within himself, was supremely revealed when Jesus Christ, through his death, provided an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Further, God’s love is brought to perfection when it bears fruit in his people – in our relationships with one another: If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. Truly an amazing statement.
AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY
In this little passage we are challenged to ask to what extent God’s love is reflected in our relationships with others at the church we attend? Do we take a genuine interest in one another – including those who may not be the intelligent, the beautiful and the successful? God welcomes everyone. The question is, do we? Do we pray for and support one another, do we truly welcome newcomers, not just on their first Sunday but over the following weeks? Do we go to church thinking not about what we can get, but what we can give? To take up two Greek words translated by our English word love, eros won’t serve others, but agape will.
Church alive. Significantly, churches where these principles are taught and practiced are churches that come alive. They are churches that people want to attend, churches where people want to bring their friends. One of the big challenges of life today is loneliness – people are looking for genuine community. Will they find it at your church?
