This is still Epiphany, you know, where we earlier heard the story of the Three Wise men. But there was another slightly different Wise Men Story, in a movie called, The Life of Brian? 

I seem to remember it began with the Wise Men arriving at the stable.  They enter and are greeted by a very rude, coarse, woman.  She tells the visitors that the baby is named Brian, and she takes the gifts, but is not pleased with all of them.

As they leave, she bellows, ‘Next time, don’t bother with the Myrrh”

As they step into the street, they see another stable, just down the road.

There is a heavenly light around that stable, and there are shepherds looking in at the child. 

They recognize the child they have come to see, go back inside, retrieve the gifts, and head for the real Messiah.

I guess the point of the story is that kings will bow down before Jesus, echoing the prophecy of Isaiah, and Matthew also wants us to know that Jesus came for us Gentiles – the three Wise Men are Gentiles, of course –

And their homage also echoes Isaiah’s words, ‘Nations and kings will come to  the light of your dawning day.”

And the homage paid by the Magi validates the kingship of Jesus the babe.

Queen Eizabeth has passed, but  latterly we had seen her as a queen but also a grandmother, , and showing her age after all the stresses that she had to endure, but I remember seeing her on television, a slightly built, beautiful young woman, and the Archbishop of Canterbury placing the crown on her head.

That was at the coronation, the crowning, but she was already queen.

Didn’t they used to shout, when a monarch died,” The king is dead; long live the king.”? Or in Elizabeth’s  case, ‘Long live the Queen.’

The heir automatically becomes the monarch  when the monarch dies.

The wise men weren’t needed to say who Jesus was,  although Matthew

uses the story for that reason: he already was king.

They merely recognised him.

But  the story of Jesus’ life is about not being recognised isn’t it?    

The disciples couldn’t see the kingship of Jesus, even though they lived with him daily for three years. 

Some people saw him as a troublemaker; others as a potential military  leader; others again, saw Him as a teacher, a holy man, a prophet. 

Perhaps just a couple of the religious leaders  secretly recognised him for who he was.  They knew but condemned him nevertheless. That is the

unforgivable sin, isn’t it?

We can be forgiven for not knowing  – for being blind –  but it is  a certain unforgivable kind of evil, which recognizes and still tries to destroy pure love.

Mostly I think we go through life, like Mr. Magoo, bumping into Jesus without knowing it.

There is the story of the young woman who had the reputation of always depending on the wrong man, and who had never given a thought  to God, and once more deserted, and penniless, and not knowing which way to turn, found herself in a small village church.

Where she found God.

She didn’t know how she got there. She only knew the peace and strength that came when once she recognised Jesus. 

He had always been there, but that day she saw Him for the first time.

And after that, once she had learned to recognize him, she found Christ everywhere. 

There is a story of a strong, abrasive man (argue too strongly with him and he would knock you down) who ridiculed as  ‘Cissies ‘ those men who went to church.

He went through his life meeting every challenge head on and fists up  He thought he could handle anything and anyone. He had no need of God. 

But at death’s door, when he was staring into the abyss, he cried out like a child, ” I’m frightened! Jesus save me! ” 

Jesus had always been there. He just hadn’t seen him. Didn’t need to?

Someone  prayed with him and Jesus took him by the hand and led him home, and he found peace at last. 

There are those who just don’t know about Jesus, and there are those who deny his very existence.

I officiated at  a funeral once for a man who had been stricken with a terrible disease, He had cried out, “I don’t believe in God. Look what he has done to me.” and died proclaiming there was no God.

But if he had been able to look, he would have seen Christ in those who had cared for him; in those who had been present with him through his last few weeks of life and in those who promised to care for his orphaned children.

Maybe God didn’t give him what he wanted when he wanted it, but God was there, doing what God does, working through His people.   

Sometimes we can’t see Him for looking. 

Like the farmer’s son who was sent out to find kindling. He came back empty-handed. “There is no wood, father,” he said.  His father took him outside and pointed at the forest almost on their door-step.

Sometimes the trees get in the way of the wood, don’t they?  

We can find Jesus in the Eucharist. We can find Jesus in our prayers. We can find Jesus in the Holy Gospels. 

Yes.

But look around. At each other, and you will also see him.

You will find him in the person who leans over and welcomes you the first time you come to church.  You will find him in the face of a child playing on a pew.

You will find him in the helping hand that comes from that person across the aisle. When you need her.

That’s one more good thing to come out of ‘passing the peace.’  Before that happened. it was possible to come to church each Sunday and never even know the person in the opposite pew.

Peace is what church is about, isn’t it?

It’s where we can show we have forgotten old arguments; it’s where we can see each other up close; it’s where we can find that as we hope Christ lives in us, he also lives in them. 

The Three Wise Men came, acknowledged the child, and left.   We are invited right in. We don’t have to leave. We belong!

We share in singing His praises, we share in his kingdom, and we share a meal with him,

You know, the Eucharist is a holy and solemn event.  It’s where we touch Christ. It’s very moving.

But on another level, it is simply eating and drinking with Him, and with each other.

We can find Christ there, at the communion rail, but also in each other.

In `each other’ is a bit hard to take sometimes.   We can touch Christ in the Eucharist, but in old Mr. Grumpy?  And that stuck-up looking lady with the hat? And the surly man in the black overalls who comes to check the furnace?  

Come on!

How do I find God in them?

But if He is in me, then why not in them?

During the second world war, Allied soldiers in Italy, as they wearily trudged forward, saw a wayside shrine, with a figure of Jesus in it. 

The figure had been damaged by shellfire and the hands and feet were missing.

Someone had written on a piece of cardboard, propped up against the wall of the shrine,” You will have to be my hands and feet now.”

Me?

Really?

Yes, everyone who read that message was potentially co-opted as Christ in this world.

When I kneel at the communion rail and receive the wafer, and ask that God  live in me, I must also expect Him to live in the persons kneeling near me.

And I should look for him in them.

“Dear Jesus, help me find you in them.”

You may know some people in whom it is hard to see Christ.

You might say it’s easier to see the devil in them. Some of them!

But if we keep looking for the  devil in them, that’s who we will find. 

You know, the Nazis made Jews dress in ridiculous -looking clothes, and shaved their heads, to make them look less like a neighbour, less human, so it would be easier to persecute  them.

Intentionally.

As Christians, we are asked to do the opposite.  We are asked to look beyond the outer shell, beyond the nose rings, and weird hair, and jeans with the crotch down around the knees, and beyond the short temper, and irritating ways, and to find Jesus.

Intentionally.

I know that’s what most of us in my church – look for Christ in the other person.

Each year, I am more than amazed, and more pleased at the culture of my church.

It can work for anyone.

If you don’t know what all goes in your church,  in your name, and by your representatives, then make a point of reading the reports in the Vestry booklet, and you will be amazed, although I believe you all know what goes on, because nearly everyone is a part of what is going on, for which I give thanks.

We look forward to another blessed year, witnessing to Christ in our own church community.

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John

John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.”

They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).(John 1:29-42)

                                      —————————————

“We have found the Messiah.”   This is Andrew telling his brother Peter about Jesus.

“We have found the Messiah!!” 

He might have said, “We have found the One who is chosen to lead us from slavery into freedom. We have found The One who is to bring light to this dark world. The One in whom all sin can be forgiven.”

“The Messiah, the Christ, the Chosen One.”

I wonder if you remember when you found Christ. It may not have been a scintillating revelation. It may have been a gradual awareness, a gradual realisation, or a sudden realisation – an Epiphany, in fact.

Or after a particularly hard time, it may have been a realisation that during that time, someone had been there with you, and that someone was Jesus.

Cast your mind back. When did you first find Christ?

Actually, though,  I don’t think we find  Jesus.

He finds us.

Were you ever lost as a child?  Can you remember  the feeling: the dread feeling when you look around, perhaps after playing in the toy department of the store, and your mom is not there?

It’s horrible.

And your heart pumping, fighting back tears, you wander around in a daze, until finally you hear her voice, out of nowhere, “There you are!”

And you are found.

What a joy.

What a relief.

Imagine then, for an adult, how heartwarming it must be to be found.

But first, we have to realise we are lost. And that is the problem. Many people don’t even know they are lost.

I was thinking back over some aspects of my life the other day, and I remembered some decisions I had made, some directions I had taken, as a young man.

I remembered how I had been sure at the time that what I was doing was right.

I was so sure.

Or maybe I didn’t care!

Now looking back, I wonder how I could have been so naive. How could I have been so stupid.

Really!

I was like that child, playing in the toy department, and not knowing I was lost.

Until one day, after I had made so many wrong decisions that I came to a dead end, and it was obvious even to me that I was lost –   knew I was lost –  with my heart pumping, and fighting back tears,  he found me. 

And he had been looking for me for a long time.

Do you have a recollection like that? And if so, do you remember the great feeling, afterward?

A minister was walking down a hospital hallway when a man came running out of a room, and with a great smile on his face, he shouted, “She is going to make it.”

The minister didn’t know who ‘she’ was, nor who this madly joyous man was. It didn’t matter, the man just had to tell someone.

Andrew had to tell his brother Peter, that he had found the Messiah.

He just had to tell him.

And bring him to meet Jesus.

“Andrew was good at bringing people to Jesus wasn’t he?  There are only three times in the Gospels when Andrew is the centre of the stage. There is this incident here where he brings his brother to Jesus. There is the incident in John 6, verses 6-9, when he brings to Jesus the little boy with the five loaves and two fishes. Then there is the incident in John 12, 22 where he brings the enquiring Greeks into the presence of Jesus.

“It was Andrew’s great joy to bring others to Jesus. He stands as the man  whose one desire was to share the glory. He is the man with the missionary heart.

“Having  himself found the friendship of Jesus, he spent all his life introducing others to that friendship. He could not keep Jesus to himself. ”  [1]

He had  to share his joy, in finding Jesus. 

How many people do you know who find gladness in knowing Jesus? 

Do you?

And do you show it? 

I remember hearing this true account, some time ago. The writer was just about to get into his car in the car park, when he heard someone blowing their horn.

Loud!

He saw a man in a car, his face distorted with  fury, his hand hard on his car horn.

It seemed that someone else had just driven into the parking spot that man thought he was going to use. And wanted to vent at someone.

The writer said that he looked at the other car, and saw a man get out. He was big and bulky, and he naturally wondered what was going to happen.

Was there going to be a fight?

The first man took his hand off the horn, got out of his car, and just stood there.

The big guy went toward him, and stuck out his hand.

“Hi,” he said, with a  smile, ” My name’s Bill Matthews, how can I help you?”

The other guy’s face relaxed. Suddenly!  He forced a smile back.

” Sorry,” he said, ” I guess I was a bit out of line.”

The other guy said, “Oh don’t worry about it, we all get irritated some time. Here’s my card. If you ever want insurance, give me a call.”

It would be nice, wouldn’t it if in a similar situation, one person  could say something like, “Hi, my name’s so and so. I am a Christian. Here is my card. Call me if you ever want a ride to church.”

Or something!

With the love of Jesus shining from their face.

You know,  God uses us to help him with all sorts of people. It may not be the ones obviously in need. It may be the wrong time  

But they just might be – in need..

They just might have been directed by God, towards you.

Or me.

And when that happens, if the gladness that I feel in  knowing Jesus, and the need to tell others about him, doesn’t come through, then something needs fixing.  

I am going to have to pray about it.

Pray, that when He sends someone needing help my way, I can be there for them. And that something is showing through.

How about you?

Do you feel that joy in Christ? And if you do, do you think you show it?

We show it  in church, don’t we?  But what about out there  with people who don’t know us?  

And here’s the kicker: if I am not showing a gladness in Christ,  then it raises the question:  Is there something wrong with my spirituality, or with my relationship with Jesus?

And if there is, it needs praying about.

But you know, I am also reminded of a story about a family which once upon a time moved into a new house.

It was a very nice house with a lot more room than in their old house. However, it was also strange and when it came time to go to bed, the three children were very sleepy but  they didn’t like their rooms because they were unfamiliar and they didn’t like the house because it was not their old house and they didn’t like anything because they were so tired.

Then they woke up and were frightened and angry. Their parents hadn’t come to the room to tuck them in again before they fell asleep. 

Now they woke up frightened and angry.

So they stormed down stairs and discovered that both their parents had fallen asleep in the front room, their mother on the couch and their father on an easy chair.

The kids were shocked and dismayed. What good were parents who grew so tired when they moved to a new house that they forgot their kids and just fell asleep.

So they woke their mommy up and shouted at her. “Why did you go to sleep on us mommy?”

“ Because I’m human,” she said, “and I get tired. Even Jesus got tired.”

“Yeah!”  said the kids, “ but he wasn’t our mommy!”

People want us to be perfect, don’t they? Especially our children, and we want to be perfect don’t we?  But we aren’t.  And we can’t be.

We are human.

There is no magic formula that puts a never-wavering smile on your face, or gives you the patience of a saint.

Even some of the saints didn’t have the patience of a  saint.

But when you know you have touched Christ, give thanks, and be joyful, and tell about it.

Share the joy.

When your cup runneth over, let it spill onto someone who needs it. 

When we can pour blessings on people rather than our disdain, then we will know, that like Andrew, we have found the Christ.

Or  rather,  he has found us. 

Amen.

---

[1] The Daily Study Bible, William Barclay, G.R.Welch Co. Ltd. Burlington, Ont. Rev Ed.1975

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew

Jesus left Galilee and went to the Jordan River to be baptised by John. And when he came up out of the water, the sky opened and he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him like a dove.

And he heard a voice from heaven saying, “This is my own dear Son and I am pleased with him.”(Matthew 3:13-17)

                       ____________________________

At the time that  Jesus went to be baptised, he was about to make a major decision, and take a major change in the direction of his life. It would be a change, not only in the way he would go,  but in who he was, and how he would do the task set out for him.

And  it was a decision that would  affect the lives of millions of people who would come after him. 

That’s pretty heavy, isn’t it?

It’s a heavy responsibility to place on the shoulders of one young man.

Who would want to take it on?

Well, if you had the assurance of help from the God who created the universe, and who had given you the task in the first place, and if you knew that He would always be there for you to touch and draw strength from, then you might go along with it.

What’s really surprising about the affirmation that God gave Jesus when he came up out of the River Jordan, is that Jesus hadn’t done anything yet ,

He hadn’t done anything yet, and he needn’t have done anything yet. The support of his Father in Heaven was his, even without his asking.

As Peter is quoted in the Acts of the Apostles: God gave the Holy Spirit to Jesus of  Nazareth. He was with Jesus as he went around doing good and healing everyone who was under the power of the devil.

He was with him.

And the prophet Isaiah has God saying, “Here is my servant. I have made him strong. He is my chosen one; I am pleased with him. I have given him my spirit and he will bring justice to the nations.”

And just in case there is any doubt where the strength to do God’s will comes from, Isaiah quotes God again, “I am the Lord God. I created the heavens like an open tent above. I am the source of life. I selected and sent you to bring light and my promise of hope to the nations.”

That’s who Jesus had standing by him – the Lord of the Universe. 

Wouldn’t it be great if whenever you had something challenging to do, you could have someone strong, and competent by your side? 

Someone  who would build you up when you needed it; someone who would guide you in what to say, and how to make decisions, and be there to comfort you if things didn’t go quite right.

Who could fail with such help?

Who could fail to make the right decision – with such guidance?

Who could be faint-hearted knowing that God was standing there with them at every turn, as He was with Jesus?

Well, we are promised that.  Through our  baptism!

The trouble is that it happens usually when we are too young to know about it, or we have forgotten about it, or we have just never availed ourselves of it. Or something!

When Jesus was baptised, God’s voice was heard saying, “This is my own dear Son and I am pleased with him.”

When we were baptised, God was pleased with us too. And we hadn’t even done anything yet to please him.

The voice that might have been heard at our baptism, might have said, “ Let’s hope that now that baby’s been baptised, it’ll be quiet.”

The fact is that when you and I were baptised, we were promised the same support from our Father in heaven that Jesus had been given.

We were promised that His Holy Spirit would be with us, to help us live life right.

But we forget, don’t we?

We forget that He has promised to be there to help with our problems. 

He is there, even if we don’t know it, and He loves us even when we don’t care, and  He recognizes us, even when we don’t really know who we are, ourselves. 

He is right there, just waiting to be needed.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, in southern California, a few years back, the pastor of a large local church told this true story of something that happened to his own family.

His wife and her sister had been Christmas shopping and were speeding along the freeway on their way home. It was a cold blustery night, dark and rainy. His wife and her sister were busily chatting  in the front seat of the car. The pastor’s three year-old daughter was in the backseat by herself.

Suddenly the two adults were aware of a strange, unnatural and horrifying set of sounds as they heard they heard the back door of the car open  – the whistle of the wind, and a sickening muffled sound. Quickly they turned and saw that the child had fallen out of the car and was tumbling along the freeway.

Panic!

The mother slammed on the brakes and pulled the car to a wrenching stop, jumped out and ran full speed, back toward the child. When they arrived at the motionless body, they noticed something strange. All the traffic was stopped, lined up like in a parking lot just behind her body.  The child had not been hit by a car. In fact, the car that would have hit her was stopped just a few feet short of her prone form.

Wonder number one.

A truck driver had jumped down from his cab and was bending over the girl when they arrived at the scene. He said, “She’s still alive. Let’s get her to a hospital quickly. There’s one nearby. He picked up the child and they all got into his truck and sped to the nearby hospital. The child was unconscious, but still breathing. 

Wonder number two.

When they arrived at the hospital, they rushed into the emergency room and the doctors immediately began to check her vital signs. The room was hushed. Finally the doctor spoke. “Well, other than the fact that she is unconscious, and scraped, she appears to be in good shape. I don’t see any broken bones. Her blood pressure is good. Her heart is fine. So far so good.” 

There was no apparent gross damage. She was only bruised and skinned from her vicious tumble along the freeway.

Wonder number three.

The mother bent over her child. Her eyes were full of tears and her heart was filled with gratitude for such a miracle. Suddenly, without warning, the child’s eyes opened. She looked at her mother and said, “ Mommy, you know, I wasn’t afraid.” Startled, the mother said, “Oh, what do you mean?”

”Well,” she said, “ While I was lying on the road waiting for you to get back to me – I wasn’t afraid, because I looked up, and right there I saw Jesus holding back the traffic with his arms outstretched.”

Wonder after wonder, and every wonder true.

God was actually, actively, working to save that child.

Now I don’t recommend that you dispense with seat belts, nor that you don’t bother to watch your children when they are in the car. But this story does give us food for thought doesn’t it?

At our baptism we are offered to God, and He takes us for His own.  He promises to be with us through the ups and downs of life, and the choices that we have to make.

He promises that as His children we will be forgiven our sins, cared for, and guided along right pathways.

Not because we have done something to warrant that.

Just  because!.

Having God as an integral part of our lives is something that we often overlook.

We live our lives, do our time, as it were, and maybe never give him a thought.

Sometimes, though, being independent, and strong willed, and having gone our own way, we find ourselves lost, and scared, and alone.

That’s when we notice that He isn’t there – or so we think.

Some years ago,  I bought some  Bible software on a disk. For a certain sum of money you got so many features. There were many more features on the disk, but they were not available until you made a long distance call to  the publisher, agreed to pay a fee, and then were given a  key to unlock the other features you wanted to use.

They had always been there. But you couldn’t access them without the key.

That’s kind of the same – but not quite the same, with God.

He is always there. That’s the same, but what isn’t the same is that all you need do is make that long distance call – it’s called prayer – and accept Him.

And there is no fee!.

.Acceptance is  key. 

He accepted us the day we were baptised in His Name.

We accept Him when we call upon His name.

Amen.