Home for Christmas (John 1.14)

70 years ago, an obscure Professor of Literature from New York State in the USA published a book. It made very little impact, but in 2011, Time Magazine included it in its list of the 100 best and most influential books written in English. 

I wonder if you’ve even heard of it? The author was called Joseph Campbell and the book was the fruit of his research amongst tribal communities all over the world whose local myths and legends he sat and listened to.

What he found, to his amazement, was that the vast majority of these folk stories boil down to the same essential plot. And it’s this: how will our hero ever get home against all odds? His book is called, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.”

Many bestsellers and blockbuster films since the publication of that book have deliberately picked up this theme. 

Here are just a few that you will have heard of; E.T., Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lion King, The Lord of the Rings, Apollo 13, Toy Story, Indiana Jones, Finding Nemo and many more… They are all about the same thing; how do you get home?

These books and films are hugely popular because they all awaken a profound yearning we all have deep down – we want to be home. 

There’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. And when you’re somewhere strange you feel a bit happier when someone says, “Make yourself at home.” 

There is a visceral need, felt universally amongst human beings, to get back to the refuge of security, of familiarity, the place where we know we’re loved and accepted. Where everyone is for you. Home sweet home. 

Home, of course, is not a safe place for everyone. The word “home” for some people tragically stirs up emotions of anger and anxiety. 

If you know anyone who grew up in a home dominated by abuse or neglect or constant fighting, you are painfully aware that home is not always what we know deep down it can be and should be.

Christmas is the time of year that the Samaritans get the most calls. Why is that? 

Maybe it’s that, for many, the perfect home displayed in heart-warming Christmas adverts is just so far from reality that it just magnifies their sense of loneliness and unhappiness.

Our carols are one of the greatest treasures of the church and I love them. But I freely admit they can romanticise the first Christmas a bit. We sing of the “dreamy little town of Bethlehem”, of a baby that “no crying he makes”, and of a young mother “in her maiden bliss.”

The first Christmas is actually the story of:

•  a couple with a strained relationship

•  stressed and far from home

•  struggling in vain to find temporary accommodation

•  eventually having to settle for something totally unsuitable

•  sudden contractions and harrowing labour

•  no midwife or medical care on hand

•  their privacy thereafter constantly interrupted by uninvited guests 

And all because some bureaucrat in Rome decided it would be a good idea to arrange a census for a new poll tax. How thoughtful of him…

Joseph and Mary were a long way from home (the trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem is about 100 miles). That’s a long distance by foot, especially when you are nine-months pregnant.

But Jesus travelled much further than 100 miles. “He came down to earth from heaven,” we sing.

He left the dazzling glory of the heavenly realm and the majesty of his eternal throne to make his home among us, as one of us. For the one who brought galaxies into being, “tears and smiles like us he knew.”

But is that all Christmas is? Is it just a vague message to warm the heart – God coming to earth as one of us to affirm the dignity of human existence? It’s actually much more than that.

So, what is Christmas? Is it about God loving us so much that he really lowers and demeans himself to show it? It’s really much more than that too.

We'll never grasp just how much Christmas is good news until we see just how much the world isn’t how it was meant to be. It’s broken, it's gone wrong; some of us may not even know it, but the Bible says we are all spiritually far from home. It’s why life sometimes feels empty, it’s why our relationships come under strain and stress; it’s why God often seems far away.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1.14). The message of Christmas is that Jesus has come in flesh and blood not just to experience our world - but to fix it. To set it right.

Listen to what the angel said the night Jesus was born: “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you.” 

In other words; this child, when he grows up, will make it possible for every person on this spinning planet to have a home in a secure relationship with God the Father. Heaven’s door is open so even the least deserving can come home to God. 

Some people like to make Christianity so complicated, but Jesus always made things very simple. He spoke to people using everyday words, framing his exhilarating message in unforgettable, simple stories. 

One of the most memorable stories he told was of a young, impulsive son who walks out on his family, and makes for the big city to have a wild old time.

But all the time he’s partying hard and throwing his money at wine, women and song, as he runs up debts, he cannot ignore this sickening feeling he has that no amount of pleasure he buys is addressing the growing ache of emptiness and loneliness he feels inside. 

Before long, he’s lost his house, got fired from his job and watched his friends disappear one by one. 

“Then” says Jesus, “he came to his senses.” I picture him waking up in a gutter, penniless, hung over, and wondering what happened to his trousers. He’s at rock bottom.   

“What am I doing? Where is my life going?” Then, he finally admits it. “This is just not working.” And this is when it finally dawns on him. “Home was so much better than this. I was valued and felt rooted at home. I was secure. People had time for me. I was loved. Maybe I could find my way… home.”

And so, he becomes one of Joseph Campbell's heroes with 1,000 faces. He starts to make his way home. You know the story; he gets back to the place he walked out on, his heart is in his mouth, his father meets him, throws his arms round him, makes a fuss of him and celebrates his homecoming with a great party. 

Does anyone here tonight want to come home to the Father right now? As the years roll by, is life working for you? Is it really fulfilling the inner hungers and deepest desires of your soul? 

If not, is it now the time - this very night - to come home where God is waiting, to receive you and embrace you, just as you are? 

Home for Christmas...

Sermon preached at Midnight Holy Communion 2019 at All Saint's Preston on Tees

He Will Be Great (Luke 1.26-38)

Introduction

I asked a random group of people last week, for the purposes of this talk, who they thought was the greatest and most influential woman who has ever lived.

Here are some of the answers I was given; Mother Teresa, Michelle Obama, Emmeline Pankhurst, Joan of Arc, Benazir Bhutto, Marie Curie, Elizabeth II, Malala Youfzefzai, Rosa Parks, Florence Nightingale, Jane Austin and J.K. Rowling. Who might you nominate, I wonder?

I have to say I was surprised, indeed stunned, that Kathie Lambert was so inexplicably overlooked; she would be, of course, my clear favourite. But apart from Kathie, I think I might well be tempted to nominate Jesus’ mother Mary.

There is a pretty good case to be made, I think, that she is the most significant woman in the history of the world. Few women, if any, have influenced history more decisively. She once said, “All generations will call me blessed” and that has certainly been so.

The Virgin Birth

Seven hundred years before the birth of her eldest son Jesus, the prophet Isaiah spoke about an event that no one would - or could - possibly miss, and this woman Mary was at the centre of it. What Isaiah predicted was so out of the ordinary, so remarkable and so rare that you could not ignore it.

He said, “The Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (which means God is with us).”

In September 1996, the Daily Telegraph published an article headlined: “Virgin birth insurance. Some 300 British women have taken out insurance against having a virgin birth by an act of God. And the article went on to report that this policy offered by London insurance brokers Goodfellow Ingrams Pearson, promises to pay out £1 million in the event of a virgin birth - to be verified by an independent panel of gynecologists - against an annual premium of £100.

This is not the company’s only unusual policy - a scheme insuring against impregnation by aliens was taken up by 723 people in just four weeks. Managing Director Simon Burgess noted somewhat candidly, “You must never underestimate the stupidity of the British public…”

It doesn’t take a gynecologist to tell you that a virgin birth is impossible.

Actually, this phenomenon does occur very rarely in some fish, amphibians and reptiles, but in the normal course of events, and unfailingly in human beings, it takes a male and a female to produce offspring. Any other explanation for the arrival of a baby falls into the realm of the science fiction - or act of God.

But this strange prophecy that the Messiah’s young mother would be a virgin, gave rise to a long-treasured hope amongst God’s chosen people down the years that leads us to Luke chapter 1, where we find ourselves today.

The Annunciation

In Luke 1.26 we read that the heavenly messenger Gabriel is sent by God to a Galilean village called Nazareth. We just need to stop there and consider this for a moment.

Nazareth is never mentioned in the Old Testament. Not once. You can’t find it in the intertestamental writings either. 45 towns and villages in Galilee are mentioned by first-century Jewish historian Josephus, who knew the area well. Forty-five; and Nazareth isn’t one of them. 63 towns and villages in Galilee are mentioned in the Hebrew Talmud. Nazareth isn’t one of them either.

Why not? Because nothing interesting, exciting, important or noteworthy ever happened there. No one of any prominence either came from there or ever went there. It was the nondescript armpit of Galilee.

Nazareth was a bit of a dump that people passed through and instantly forgot. I think of it as the Basildon of the Middle East. It was a nowhere kind of place.

Today, about 75,000 people live in Nazareth and the town has a bit more about it. But in Jesus’ day, it was a very, very uninteresting rural village. It’s estimated that only about 500 people (mostly poor and illiterate) lived there at that time. That’s half the population of Long Newton.

There was nothing there. This place had no redeeming features. In John 1.46 Nathanael asks the rhetorical question, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Obvious answer? “Well, no – of course not; nothing good will ever come from Nazareth.”

An hour’s walk from Nazareth was an affluent and prosperous town called Sepphoris. 30,000 people lived in Sepphoris. That’s more than the population of Ingleby Barwick. In Jesus’ day Sepphoris was continually expanding, just like Ingleby Barwick, and that probably explains why a craftsman called Joseph moved up north from his home town of Bethlehem to find work on one of the many building sites there.

Recent excavations of Sepphoris have uncovered luxurious villas with ornate mosaic floors. People of means lived there. They’ve found nothing remotely like that digging around Nazareth; all you find there from the first century are the remains of cheap, small, pokey houses.

Why did God choose this village, Nazareth, of all places to pick out a young woman, a teenager really, to bear the Messiah, his anointed one? Why this place, this unattractive hole, so looked down on, of such low standing that no one ever thought to mention it when writing about the area?

What does it say to us about God that this event, the announcement of the birth of a great saviour, did not take place in Sepphoris among the wealthy, drinking cocktails in their fancy villas, but instead in Nazareth among forgotten people living in simple, small dwellings? What does it say to you about who God chooses and where his favour rests?

The setting of this story shows how God regards the meek and the lowly. It’s one of many examples in the Bible of how God tends to pick the improbable and the unlikely and the implausible to accomplish his most glorious plans.

In 1 Corinthians 1, the Apostle Paul presses home the point; “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are.”

You think you haven’t got much going for you? Not very interesting? Not all that gifted? A bit ordinary? The sort of person no one really seems to notice? God notices you.

Mary is young; probably 15 or 16 years old. She’s pledged in marriage to Joseph. Life expectancy was lower, so people usually married much younger. Joseph and Mary are teenagers – and engaged already. They are excited, I have no doubt. They’re planning a wedding. Mary’s probably thinking about it all the time.

In that culture, at that time, marriage customs were very different to what we know today. This will have been a marriage arranged by their parents. Their betrothal period lasts a year; that’s the time between announcing the marriage and the wedding taking place. During that year, Mary and Joseph cannot live together, they can hardly be together; they certainly cannot sleep together; that would be unthinkable.

To break off an engagement in our culture is not really ideal but it is not usually seen as a great catastrophe. But betrothal was a serious commitment. In Mary and Joseph’s day, to terminate a betrothal was scandalous, it brought disgrace on the families, and it could only be done through divorce.

At the end of their betrothal year, Mary and Joseph would have a wedding. That night, they would consummate the marriage and then they would begin to live together under one roof as husband and wife. For Mary and Joseph, counting down the days, there was not long to go; less than a year. Then they would tie the knot and live happily ever after.

But then God steps in - and it all goes horribly wrong. You get a sense straight away, reading this story, that things are not quite right because Luke tells us that Mary was disturbed by what Gabriel says, even before he gets to the point.

Luke 1.28: “The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’” There is nothing about those words that indicate anything is going to be a problem. ‘Greetings’ – in other words, ‘Hi.’ ‘You who are highly favoured!’ That’s a good thing. ‘The Lord is with you’ – Great!

But the Bible says, “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.”

Mary is disturbed. She is startled. Why? Is it because she feels uncomfortable and vulnerable finding herself alone in private with a stranger, a man? Gabriel would have appeared to Mary as a man; a visually striking and impressive one no doubt, but just a man.

(Nowhere in the Bible does it suggest that angels have wings and halos. That idea comes mostly from Renaissance paintings). The fact we can entertain angels without even knowing it proves they don’t have wings or halos.

But is this why Mary is so troubled? That she’s suddenly alone with a stranger? We can understand why she might feel uncomfortable with that can’t we?

Or is it maybe her modest, unassuming spirit and her poor, lowly position in life that makes it so puzzling to her that she should be called, “highly favoured”? Is that why she’s troubled? “Highly favoured? What’s he talking about? I’m just a girl no one has heard of from this nowhere town called Nazareth!” Maybe it’s a bit of both.

But the angel says to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great... and his kingdom will never end.’

True Greatness

There is so much in these words, and in Mary’s response. But I want to focus on just four words spoken about the child she would bear; “He will be great.”

Everything we know about Jesus bears this out. He... will... be... great.

He is great in wisdom. One of the earliest prophecies about Jesus is that he would be a wonderful counsellor. His discernment, his wisdom, his good judgement would be awe-inspiring. And it’s true, people everywhere marvelled at his words.

From the age of 12 he confounded the scholars and intellectuals in the temple. The Bible says, “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” People said, “Where did he get all this from? Who is this kid? We’ve never seen anything like it!” Even his parents were astonished, we read.

Time and time again in the Gospels, people try to trap him and put him in an impossible position. On every occasion, Jesus not only gets out the trap they lay, he leaves his opponents looking like idiots for good measure.

Think of the election campaign we’ve just witnessed. Think of all the dumb things candidates said and then had to apologise for. Jesus never retracted a single word he said. Because he never had to. He never had to climb down or do a U-Turn or apologise for saying something crass. His every word was spot on.

He never hesitated, he always said it perfectly first-time round. People hung on every word; “This man speaks with authority, he knows what he’s talking about, he’s not like the scholars.”

Jesus told stories so simple a child could enjoy them. But those same stories were also so spiritually profound that his enemies went away scratching their heads. He will be great – great in wisdom.

He is great in leadership. He just had to say, “Follow me,” and fishermen left their nets and boats - their whole careers - on the shore behind them. Tax collectors got up from their booths, left all the money on the table, and didn’t look back. His charisma was so magnetic and his authority so convincing that strangers came up to him and said, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Loose women spontaneously lavished expensive and fragrant perfume, worth a year’s wages, all over his feet because one look at him was enough to shut the door on their old life and say yes to his way of purity and wholeness.  

Many management experts in our day have studied Jesus’ leadership style and they say it is textbook. Jesus is a model of casting inspirational vision, of investing in others, of defining standards, of solving problems, of setting objectives, achieving them and getting an organisation from here to there. He will be great – great in leadership.

He is great in power. Jesus walked on water. He multiplied meagre provisions to feed crowds of hungry people. He drove out evil, demonic darkness from oppressed and haunted individuals. He restored sanity to disturbed, self-harming psychopaths.

A historian of the time, Flavius Josephus, (not a believer in Jesus) had to admit that Jesus… “was one who performed surprising deeds.” Even his enemies acknowledged his works of power. They didn’t deny it. They couldn’t, so they dismissed it as occultic black magic.

Crowds flocked to see him, carrying sick people on stretchers and leading the blind because they knew he could heal them and he did. He even healed at a distance. And on three occasions, before witnesses, he raised a dead corpse to life. He will be great – great in power.

He is great in humility. The entire universe was made by him, through him and for him, but he set aside his majesty, was born in poverty and subjected himself to his parents’ care. He constantly discouraged people from going around calling him the Messiah, even though he was. He was the Son of God but he called himself the Son of Man.

He spent time with children and came down to their level. He owned no property and had few possessions. He slept rough. He washed dirty feet, taking the role of the lowest servant. On two separate occasions the Bible tells us, as a grown man in public, he broke down and wept. He will be great – great in humility.

He is great in kindness. An ancient prophecy of the Messiah stated, “a smouldering wick he will not snuff out, a bruised reed he will not break.” Jesus gently restored broken, crushed people.

Time and again in the Gospels it says he was moved with compassion. His heart broke as he looked at the crowds because they were helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He spoke tenderly to widows. He discharged debtors.

He touched untouchable lepers, contagious, skin flaking off and hideous to look at. Nobody else went near them but Jesus broke all convention because his heart went out to them. He forgave sinners wracked with guilt and condemnation. They went away transformed. He will be great – great in kindness.

He is great in suffering. The Gospels record that there were at least 5 attempts on his life; starting with Herod when he was a baby. His home town and own family rejected him. The Pharisees hated him. The Sadducees sneered at him. The teachers of the law were jealous of him.

One of his close followers betrayed him for a bag of coins. The rest deserted him. The Sanhedrin framed him. The chief priests condemned him. Pilate washed his hands of him. The lynch mob turned on him. The Romans flogged him to within an inch of his life. The crowds jeered at him and spat in his face.

And then, we all nailed him to the cross. All this suffering, all this rejection, all this contempt, all this violence against the most beautiful life ever lived. He will be great – great in suffering.

Ending

All through history, there have been figures who distinguished themselves so remarkably in their generation that they were given the title “The Great.” Herod the Great. Peter the Great. Catherine the Great. Alexander the Great. Charles the Great.

Their empires are long gone and their achievements are largely forgotten.

But Jesus’ kingdom is still expanding. “He will be great.” No figure in human history has had more books written about him, has been more quoted, more painted, has had more buildings constructed in his honour and attracted more followers. 

His accomplishments are still celebrated in every nation on earth, every day of the week. “He will be great” said Gabriel and he absolutely is.

He is alive today, millions know him personally and, by his Holy Spirit, he is with us now; great in honour and glory, great in power and might, great in mercy and love. Let’s stand to acclaim the undisputed greatest...

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 15 December 2019 

The Word of Life (1 John 1.1-4)

Introduction

Today, we’re starting a series that will take us through to the beginning of March (with a short break for Christmas) and we’re going to be going through the First Letter of John.

Before we get into the letter itself, I want to explore a bit who this John was because it helps us understand where he’s coming from in this letter. The Gospels say quite a lot about him but I want to just mention two things.

Fiery Temperament

John and his brother James were partners in a fishing business based on the Sea of Galilee. When he first met Jesus, he was young, hot tempered, arrogant, loud, direct and impulsive. We’d call him passionate or perhaps intense.

When Jesus called John to follow him in Matthew 4, he was sitting in a boat washing all the seaweed out of his fishing net and it says he immediately left the boat and his father and went. John is an all or nothing kind of guy. He can’t be bothered with all that “thinking it through” stuff.

Jesus nicknamed him (and his brother James) sons of thunder. That’s because they both had a tendency to fly off the handle. Luke 9 tells of a time when Jesus and the Twelve are travelling from Galilee to Judea; that’s north to south about 60 miles.

In Jesus’ day to get from one province to the other you had to go through an area in the middle, called Samaria where Jews were not welcome. It was a bit like with the Jews and Palestinians today. They both saw each other as the neighbours from hell.

So they’re in this Samaritan village and they get a predictably frosty reception. John (and his brother James who is just a bad) see this, instantly snap, and say, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and destroy these people?”

With John it’s always the nuclear option first. He’s a loose cannon. John is not the guy you want anywhere near your pastoral care team… He is intolerant and prejudiced and unloving.

And look at the arrogance; “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven?” "We’ll take care of this scum. Leave the smiting to us, Lord." And of course, Jesus sharply rebukes them both.

But that’s John. He can't help himself. This is who he is.

Think of the people you know, think of yourself... there are two ends of the temperament spectrum. American preacher Mark Driscoll calls it dimmer switch and on/off switch. 

At one end, you get dimmer switch people. They wear sensible shoes and carefully read the instructions before assembling plat pack furniture. They see two sides of every argument. They are cautious, balanced, nuanced and reasonable.

At the other end of the spectrum, you find on/off switch people. There are just two options; on or off. All or nothing. They don’t do nuance. There’s just black or white. On/off switch people, if they’re not boycotting an event, are all in.

Which end of the spectrum are you at? Dimmer switch or on/off switch? John is your classic, textbook on/off switch man.

And now, at the time this letter is written, decades after he first met Jesus, John is still an on/off switch. All through his letter he writes in stark and ultimate contrasts; if you’ve read 1 John you’ve probably have noticed this.

There is no middle road for John between love and hatred, light and darkness, truth and lies, Christ and Antichrist, God as Father or the devil as father, being in the world or being of it.

But what you also notice in this letter is that John is no longer a hot headed, opinionated youth. He's a mild-mannered, benign and kindly old grandfather figure who is always going on about friendship, loving one another, and all the way through he calls his fellow believers “little children,” or “my dear friends.”

His basic makeup is the same, he’s still that on/off switch; he’ll never do finesse or diplomacy. But John’s personality is now reoriented, refocused. What changed in John’s life? I’ll tell you; it’s a lifetime of knowing Jesus.

When John first met Jesus, he was a rough diamond. But Jesus chose him to be one of the twelve. That’s because when Jesus calls you, he doesn’t just look at what you are. He looks deeper and sees what you can become, with a touch of grace, and a measure of faith, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

God takes you as you come. But by the time he’s finished with you, you might look very different to how you started - you probably will. But it will be his work. God took me on as the train wreck that I once was. That’s grace. 

But being a Christian is not self-help. His goal, from the start, was to shape me - and us - into the best version of us we can be. That’s mercy.

Deep Friendship

So that’s the first thing I wanted to say. Here’s the second: …of all the people living on the face of the earth, who would you call your best friend? Don’t say Jesus. It’s a great answer, it’s the best answer, but I mean apart from Jesus.

Some of us would think of a spouse, or a sibling, or an old school friend, or maybe a parent or even grandparent, perhaps a colleague…

Who would you pick out as your closest companion, the one above all others who knows you best, who puts up with you the most and who sticks with you the longest? 

People say that dogs are man’s best friend. They’re not mine. I find the physical enthusiasm of dogs towards me just a little bit overwhelming. Dogs do not respect my personal space, they give me unwanted hugs, uninvited dribble and unwelcome paw marks on my clothes. 

But dogs are legendary for being loyal and faithful aren’t they? They want to be with you, they whimper when you leave them, they give you the sad, sorrowful eyes when you feel down, they just love you to death. 

Dogs have nothing bad to say about you, ever. It has even been said that dogs love their owners so much they start to look like them. Someone wrote a prayer once; “Lord, make me the kind of person my dog thinks I am.”

Anyway, of the twelve disciples, there was an inner circle of three; John was in it. Of the three, one was closest to Jesus; that was John. John was the best friend Jesus had on earth.

It is said that Mark’s Gospel tells you what Jesus did. Matthew and Luke’s tell you what he said. But John’s Gospel tells you who he is. It’s the deepest, most personal, most insightful Gospel of the four and it can only have been written by someone who knew Jesus inside and out.

At the last supper, John’s head was leaning against Jesus’ chest. He literally heard and felt the Lord’s beating heart. He was the closest to Jesus. 

When Jesus was dying, John was the only one of the twelve to be there. Jesus saw his mother in bits, traumatised by what she was witnessing and he told John to look after her when he was gone. 

John was one of those who buried the body at sunset. John was the first of the twelve to the tomb on Easter Sunday.

Nobody knew Jesus as well, as personally, as perceptively or as closely as John did.

I have dozens of books on my shelf about Jesus. Here are a few of them here... This is just a tiny selection of all the books in the world about Jesus. No historical figure has had as many books written about him or her than Jesus of Nazareth. You visit the British Library or go on Amazon and you’ll find many thousands of books about Jesus. Do they all say the same thing? No!

This one here by Marcus Borg rejects the virgin birth, asserts that Jesus’ death was not God’s will, opposes the belief that Christ died sacrificially in our place, denies the bodily resurrection, and dismisses much of the Gospels as metaphorical fiction. 

For Marcus Borg, Jesus was just a Jewish mystic and revolutionary who challenged the oppressive political and military powers of his day.

I was asked to review this book for Christianity magazine in 2015. I panned it so mercilessly that they said to me, “No one’s going to buy this book after that review,” so they declined to publish it! They still paid me £25 for my trouble though.

But here’s the thing. If we want to study something we go to a school. Who would you trust most to tell you about a historical figure? Some ivory tower academic 20 centuries after the event? Or an eye witness who also happens to be that person’s best friend and closest companion? 

In John’s day you didn’t go to a school to learn, you went to a teacher, a rabbi, and you learned by doing life with him. The author of this letter spent three years in Jesus Christ University and graduated with honours

That Which Was from the Beginning…

Now let’s get into the letter itself. It’s just a short passage so I’ll read it again, but I’m going to read it in the Message paraphrase because John has a quite abstract way of saying what he wants to say and people sometimes struggle to bring these conceptual statements in line with their practical experience. 

The Message is quite good at putting it in language we’re more familiar with.

From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in - we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: the infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!

I think the key phrase comes at the end of v1; the Word of Life. John reflects on a lifetime of knowing Jesus and this how he sums him up. It’s an abstract sort of title, the word of life, but here’s what it means:

Just as God created the entire physical universe with a word; “let there be light,” Jesus too is like a word spoken by God that brings about spiritual life.

This letter was, we think, written in the 90’s of the first century. John is now an old man. He’s the last surviving apostle. The church has now been through pain and persecution and purifying. Most Christians are now second generation. Few were actually there when Jesus walked the earth.

And now, some are starting to wander off and listen to new and strange, mystical, religious ideas. They won’t deliver. It’s snake oil. But John remembers the authentic Jesus like it was yesterday and he wants every Christian to know and experience the real thing.

So, in case anyone is thinking to themselves, “Why should we listen to you?” John starts by saying, “Look, I was there. I was out all night in my fishing boat and didn’t catch a single minnow. But I heard his voice. 

And when he said to throw the net out the other side, I was one of the guys who helped to haul in the nets bulging with the biggest catch I had seen in my entire career. I counted the fish. 

I remember the unique way he looked into my eyes. As if to say, “That’s how you catch fish, mate.”

I actually touched him. I hugged him. I remember when he told the story of the Prodigal Son. It was electric. I watched him raise a dead girl to life. I saw the sweat on his brow as we walked on hot dusty roads. 

I held in my hands the bread and fishes that he multiplied. I’ve been there, done that and got the T-shirt personally signed, authenticated and framed. It all actually happened. I can remember it like yesterday.

In the Greek the verb “to see” is horan and it just means to physically view something. John uses it here in v1 (“that which we have seen with our eyes”).

But there’s another word that we sometimes translate as “see” (it does here in v2) but the Greek word is a different one; it’s théasthai. “We have seen it and testify to it.” This word means more than looking at something. It means to gaze or to stare at someone or something until you perceive and grasp of the significance of it.

That’s what John means here; I didn’t just look at him. I really saw him and when I saw him, I saw everything.

What do the following things have in common?

·         backpacking around the world

·         taking drugs

·         doing extreme sports

·         sleeping with multiple partners

·         drinking in excess

·         partying hard

Some of those things are legitimate, others aren’t. But people do them all for the same reason. They want life. “You only live once!” we say. Life is short.

It really is short. Not only that, as you get older it speeds up. People often get towards the end and say, “Where did all the years go?” But we usually want it to go on longer.

That’s because there’s an echo of eternity in us. We just know it deep down. Life in Eden was never meant to be brief. There’s a faint yearning in your soul and mine for eternity. John says here, “There’s something inside of all of us that points to Jesus and is only fully satisfied in knowing him.

When you discover real love, true love, you want to keep it forever. That is my story. That was the overwhelming emotion the day I encountered Jesus. I said to myself, “I’m not sure I fully understand all this, but I know it’s what I have always been looking for and I want to keep it forever.”

Actually, I learned afterwards that this was only the beginning of the journey. There’s so much more. I’ve had some high highs and some low lows as a Christian but Jesus has been faithful through every one of them.

The apologist and evangelist Ravi Zacharias wrote a book for disenchanted churchgoers called Has Christianity Failed You? He wrote it to address the complaint he kept hearing from people that the church had let them down.

Sadly, that is sometimes true; the church does fail people, ministers and members alike can get it all wrong. Love the church, commit to the church, but don’t put your faith in it. If you put your faith in the church you will almost certainly at some point be disappointed.

Not with Jesus though. Jesus fails nobody. Never mind the church; look at Christ and tell me what you find wrong with him. One good look at Jesus is enough to put everything else and everyone else in the shade.

“I am the life” he said. Not a life. Not a way of life. Not a lifestyle. The life. The real deal. If you want life in technicolor and 3-D and surround sound, you have to come to Jesus to get it.

Ending – the Joy of Fellowship

Let's wrap this up. You know what it’s like when you see a great film, or hear a great song, or watch a great match or taste a new food and you are so glad you did, you want someone else you love to experience it too? And when they do and they love it as well it makes you even happier? That’s what John is talking about here in v3-4.

John calls it ‘fellowship.’ It’s like friendship but ‘friendship’ is too shallow a word. The word he uses is a word that was used to describe the bond shared by conjoined twins.

John says in v3 “I’m telling you about what I saw and heard that changed my life so you can experience it too. And when you do, our friendship, our bond our fellowship with one another and with Father God will make me – and you – just so happy. It'll just be complete joy.

Martin Luther tasted that when his heart was warmed and revived by the Word of Life. “I would not give up one moment of [it]” he said, “for all the joys and riches of the world, even if they lasted for thousands and thousands of years.”

Let’s pray...

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 1 December 2019

Interview with One of the Magi

Oh hello. You won’t have seen me round these parts before. I’m not from here. I’m a long way from home. Hundreds of miles in fact.

You’ve probably heard of me though. I’m in that song “We Three Kings.” Do you know that song? “We three kings of orient are…” Great song. But I’m not a king actually. None of us are in fact.

We’re magi, wise men. Maybe you would call us scholars. We spend our time studying the world and the night sky, looking for signs about the future.

One night I was looking up at the stars when something caught my eye. The unusual light of a bright new star.

I quickly checked my star charts but nothing explained it. So I studied this light more closely. I watched how it interacted with the other stars and planets.

And soon it was obvious to me that something wonderful was happening. The star pointed to a royal birth in the land of the Jews. I had to learn more.

I quickly sent messages to my colleagues, telling them what I had seen and discovered.

When the second wise man joined us, he read the notes I had written and took some more measurements.

“There is more here than the birth of a king,” he said. “My reading of these signs is that God himself will come to dwell on Earth.”

We agreed that we had to go and investigate this thing. We decided that we should leave the next day. In the morning, as we were getting our camels ready, a third wise man said he wanted to come too and off we went.

As we travelled, we discussed what gifts would be best. I said, “A new baby? What about a cardigan, a rattle and a soft teddy bear?”

But the others said, “No. Gold, frankincense and myrrh would be far more useful.” I don’t think so to be honest, but it was two against one, so here we are. That’s democracy for you.

Anyway, as I said, I worked out that a new king was going to be been born.

Wise man number 2 worked out that this new king was God himself come to Earth.

The third wise man is blessed with the gift of interpreting dreams.

After we began travelling, the star became hidden behind clouds, so we went to the obvious place for a new King of the Jews.

We went to Jerusalem and asked King Herod if he knew anything about it. He was a very shifty looking man. We didn’t trust him at all.

But while we were there some experts in the Bible told us that it was Bethlehem we should go to, 10 miles down the road.

That is where all the prophets said God’s chosen one would be born. So we thanked them very much and decided to leave the next day.

That night, our third wise man had a dream that we should not go back to see King Herod because he wanted to harm the new child who had been born. I knew he looked fishy!

When we got on the road to Bethlehem, we looked up – and there it was! There was the star again. We were so excited!

That was about an hour ago. Oh, there’s not far to go now.

In fact, I can see the lights of the little town of Bethlehem up ahead. Just over there!

How still it lies. How silently it sleeps. All my life I’ve been waiting for this moment. To see God, come down to Earth.

Well, my colleagues are calling me. I’d better go. It was nice to meet you on my way. … …

You can stay here if you want. Or if you prefer, you can come along with me. To Bethlehem. To kneel before this new born king – and worship.

I’ve got goose bumps. I am getting this strange feeling that I will never be the same again after this night.

I have a feeling that nothing will ever be the same again. This night, I just know it, is going to change everything.



All-Age Talk given at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 1st December 2019
Inspired and adapted by a piece by Gord Waldie on his Worship Offerings blog.