The Resurrection: A Seismic Event

A Message Shared at an Open Air Sunrise Gathering on Portland in Dorset based on Matthew 28:1-10

The Resurrection was an event of seismic proportions.  The Greek word used in verse 2 of the reading is seismos, from which we get the word seismic and which is translated earthquake.  And this was not just any old ordinary earthquake.  This was a violent or great earthquake.  It was such because Heaven was involved represented by the angelic presence.

This was seismic for the people around the Tomb and the events of Jesus’ death and burial.  This was seismic for the authorities. This was seismic for humanity.>  Death was reversed and the full time score is Jesus 1 v Sin & Death Nil.  This was seismic for the world. 

I love talking about tectonic plates.  Those plates, about 62 miles thick the upper parts of the Earth’s Crust that cause earthquakes when they move.   How could they fail to cause earthquakes with such power?  Here the tectonic plates of heaven and earth, sin, death and eternity were moving and nothing would ever be the same again.  The landscape has changed.  That is why it was seismic.

However strong a physical earthquake there might have been it was as nothing to what was happening in spiritual terms and heaven and earth. From that we take our comfort our strength and encouragement.  Whatever seeks to kill us or drain life for us we have a Saviour who can upturn the heavens and earth and make a difference.  This is a  Saviour who, even when a stone is rolled across the entrance of a tomb, can ensure it is cast aside because when tectonic plates move everything moves.

So today as we meet as Easter People, the people of the Resurrection, whatever stands against us, within us or outside us let us remember it can be cast aside.  The God who moved heavens and earth has no problem rolling a stone and raising a man – and certainly not the God Man.

Death need never be the same again.  Life need never be the same again – for the risen Christ wants to live and love through us.  Amen.

Matthew 28:1-10

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. ² There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. ⁵ The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples: “He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.” Now I have told you.’ ⁸ So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’

Where is the Cross?

From a Reflective Sermon Preached on Good Friday 2017 at Easton Methodist Church, Portland.  (The full text of the Bible Reading from 
John 19:1-13 can be found below)

Where is the cross?

The cross is on a hill and Jesus is dying on it.  We have heard that in our reading.  So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.  Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him

Why was that cross there?

1 Corinthians 15:3 tells us For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and 1 Peter 1 tells us  For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Today we remember he died for our sin, he dies because of our sin and he died for us.

It was a most awesome moment when "God with us" is, in a way that we do not and cannot understand, hung on a cross to die.  It is no wonder that some other religions and individuals can make no sense of Christianity.  That the all powerful Creator of the World is killed by those he has created.   But God's ways are not our ways,  Isaiah 55 ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Where is the cross?  On a hill where Jesus dies because of and for our sin.

Where is the cross?

Crosses surround Jesus.

There they crucified him, and with him two others – one on each side and Jesus in the middle.  There were two thieves crucified either side.

There may have been others that day and certainly we know that there were many others crucified by the Romans at various points.  It was both punishment and deterrent by the Occupying forces. 

On this day when we remember the unique suffering of Christ which was spiritual, physical, emotional and mental, we might through the crosses of thieves and others remember the suffering of the world in so many ways. Whether it is the terrorist bomb, or the starving child, or the victims of chemical warfare, or the natural disaster (Isn’t it odd the way we call it that – God’s world was created good so maybe it is the Unnatural Disaster), the local accident where someone is badly injured or killed, or the family in debt, or the neighbour who has had bad news, or the child who is afraid, people are crucified daily on the cross of life.

Where is the cross?  Jesus had his cross but he had them around him and so do we.  They are everywhere – they just aren’t always made of wood.

As we see the suffering of Christ and remember the suffering of the world perhaps we can resolve once again to respond to the suffering of the world as God’s agents of change and signs of the Kingdom.

Where is the cross?

Within us

Within ourselves where our sinful nature is crucified.

St Paul in Galatians 2 said I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And then in Romans 6

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

We recognise that the cross has to make a difference within us and our lives. Our sin needs to be crucified on it so we might live to Christ.   Does that cross make a difference within us?

Where is the cross?

On a hill with Jesus pinned on dying for the world to reconcile us with God.

Where is the cross? 

All around us as we see people suffering in the world and reach out with Christ’s compassion to make a difference.

Where is the cross?

Within us – as we allow the awesome action of Christ to become something that affects us personally and as we offering ourselves for sin to be dealt with just as Christ offered himself for us.

Today is the day of the Cross.  It reminds us of the reality of life and the reality of life through death.

John 19:1-37

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ² The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe ³ and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they slapped him in the face.

⁴ Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.’ ⁵ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’

⁶ As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify! Crucify!’

But Pilate answered, ‘You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.’

⁷ The Jewish leaders insisted, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.’

⁸ When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, ⁹ and he went back inside the palace. ‘Where do you come from?’ he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ ‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ Pilate said. ‘Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’

¹¹ Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’

¹² From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.’

¹³ When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). ¹⁴ It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews.

¹⁵ But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’

‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked.

‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered.

¹⁶ Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. ¹⁷ Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). ¹⁸ There they crucified him, and with him two others – one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

¹⁹ Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. ²⁰ Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. ²¹ The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, ‘Do not write “The King of the Jews”, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.’

²² Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written.’

²³ When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

²⁴ ‘Let’s not tear it,’ they said to one another. ‘Let’s decide by lot who will get it.’

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

‘They divided my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.”

So this is what the soldiers did.

²⁵ Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing near by, he said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ ²⁷ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

²⁸ Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’ ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. ³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

³¹ Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ³⁵ The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. ³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’³⁷ and, as another scripture says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced.

One Church

While at a local Churches Together meeting I, among others, shared some thoughts about what it might mean to be “One Church” in our particular context and setting.  I share some of the thoughts that were in my mind during the meeting.

It seems to me that Christian Unity is often seen through the way that churches or individual Christians share in events or meetings together.  Too often greater unity is seen through an encouragement to share in even more of each other’s events or meetings, or by inviting other churches and Christians to our own events.  We rejoice in co-operation and call it unity.  But is it?

God already sees us as one Church, but unfortunately we too easily give the impression of disunity.  Part of that disunity is seen when we settle for less than that which God calls us to, and when we think that we demonstrate unity by sharing meetings and events.  As mentioned above put simply this is co-operation.  It is nice. It is good.  It is worth doing.  But it is not one Church.

Some years ago I recall a challenge within the ecumenical movement to move from co-operation with one another to commitment to one another.  This movement makes us more vulnerable and means we invest in each other in a more intentional way.  It rightly makes us more accountable to each other.

I would suggest a move still further.  That we should move from co-operation through commitment to Covenant relationship.  To move toward covenant relationship between individual Christians and churches means we bind ourselves together in an even more vulnerable way.  We vow or promise that we will be with one another, “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from this day forward…”  Yes like marriage vows, a Covenant of that type, only death does not part us but under Christ brings perfect unity.

The thing is it is so much easier to settle for co-operation and to talk as if there is a need for greater co-operation.  The move from this to commitment and covenant takes a great change of mind set and heart set.  In terms of future unity often it means rather than doing more we actually leave things behind.  Just as a married couple will have had to leave their singleness behind and the expression of that singleness for there to be a making visible of the “one Church” that God already sees we will have to give up territory, whether it be some of our past, our preferences, our ways, or our individualism.  That can be incredibly threatening for it is that point at which we feel the pain of loss so acutely and make ourselves so much more vulnerable.

We should not let ourselves off the hook by failing to ask the hard questions or by hiding behind co-operation.  If we sincerely desire to be seen as, and act as, one Church then it will hurt – just as it hurt Christ to bring reconciliation and unity about on the Cross.

The Place of Sacrifice

A Covenant Service Sermon preached at Underhill Methodist Church and Chickerell Methodist Church on 8th January 2017  (the readings used for this service are at the bottom of the Blog)

What makes Church different to the WI or the Bowls Club, or art class?

It is a Place of Sacrifice.

Sacrifice comes in many shapes and forms.  Would you give someone your last rolo?  That is supposed to be quite a sacrifice.  On Remembrance Sunday we often read from the Bible “Greater love has no-one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.” Giving the last rolo doesn’t quite seem in the same league as giving one’s life.

It is so important that we understand that when I say sacrifice permeates this Covenant service, its readings, the hymns, the sacrifice I am talking about is that which is ordained by God and sees its pinnacle and uniqueness in Christ but sacrifice which we are called to follow and which we are called to follow today as we renew our Covenant.

Today we consider The Place of Sacrifice

The Place of Sacrifice can be a literal place.

Exodus 24

He (Moses) got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 

When altars were built – and they were built for many reasons, in many places.  They were often linked with special occasions or encounters such as when Moses is given the Law in our Exodus reading and when the Covenant is made.  It was not unusual for them to be places of sacrifice. So in our reading from Exodus we are reminded not only that Moses made an altar but that

⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’

Within this sacrificial system it seems God ordains that blood is an effective agent for bringing about right relationship with God. The sacrifice of the lamb, at for instance, Passover, has very special connotations when we get to Jesus and the New Testament and see Jesus as the Lamb of God.

In the OT there are many different forms of sacrifice.  Not all of these involved animals.  Some involved fruit, cereal, cake, oil.  But they will have included animals.  One thing that Sacrifice was to do with was dealing with sin and was a God given way of being in a right relationship with God and staying in a right relationship with God.

The thing about sacrifice is there is always a cost.

It will cost.

It will indicate priorities.

It will be a sign of relationship.

Today there are places of sacrifice.  Sometimes these are physical places where we make an offering to God; sometimes they are at particular stages of life.  Sometimes in the light of special challenges or calling from God.

Today is a place of Sacrifice.

It will cost.

It will indicate priorities.

It will be a sign of relationship.

Maybe there is some specific area of sacrifice that God is calling us to today.

The Place of Sacrifice in the New Testament becomes Jesus himself.  In him all sacrifice comes to  tumultuous climax; in him a perfect offering  all is made right between God and humankind; in him comes a once a for all sacrifice that cannot be repeated.

Those words from the Exodus reading -

Exodus 24

⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’

Same kind of words used in Mark 14

²² While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take it; this is my body.’

²³ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

²⁴ ‘This is my blood of the^] covenant, which is poured out for many,’ he said to them. 

As mentioned earlier the link between sacrifice of the lamb in OT sacrifice takes on a special resonance when one looks at Jesus as the Lamb of God who is the perfect sacrifice.  As his blood is shed so there is a perfect offering. 

You could argue that the altar that Jesus was sacrificed on was the cross, but the offering of Jesus is so much more than his death – it involves his incarnation in its fullest sense – leaving heaven to enter into the world, his birth, life, death, resurrection and Ascension.  His total self offering.

And in the life and death of Jesus and Jesus himself as the place of sacrifice so we see the example sets for how we follow him and identify ourselves as one of God’s people.

The thing that makes us essentially different to the WI or the Bowls Club, or art class?

Although we do not always act as if we are different.

For Jesus the Place of sacrifice meant

A cost

An indication of priorities

A sign of relationship.

Which brings us to

The Place of Sacrifice in our lives

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 

Of course when Jesus said in John’s Gospel that “Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends” he was not thinking of the sacrifices (willing or unwilling, courageous or scared silly) that people would make in War – important as it is for us to recognise that sacrifice.

No he was of course thinking of himself.  He was to lay down his life for his friends.

And he calls us to follow his lead.  Not to lay down our lives in death necessarily although that call comes to some who follow Jesus – just look at the Persecuted Church today.  But he calls us to be living sacrifices.

And when we offer our hearts in sacrifice so we find a new start, a new way.

In our reading from the book of Jeremiah which talks about a new covenant to come we also read.

³³ ‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,’ declares the Lord.
‘I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be

Making our lives the place of sacrifice opens the way for God to do this.

Such sacrifice means

It will cost.

It will indicate priorities.

It will be a sign of relationship.

It will cost

What cost is there to us?  Are we willing for there to be a cost.  When God calls us into Covenant relationship w acknowledge there was a cost to God in Christ.

What cost is there to us in sacrifice?  Are we truly giving our lives over the God?

It will indicate priorities

Today do we resolve to put God first.  Not to fit him in around other things, people, interests.  Expressing our Christian faith, worshipping with his people, offering ourselves in service to God not as an afterthought, or fitting him in around other priorities, but making him first priority?

It will be a sign of relationship

That is it really – covenant relationship.  Not rules, not ritual, but relationship.  Not just coming to church or offering to charity, or being kind to a neighbour whilst enjoying life our way.  But a relationship with God which puts him at the centre of all we are and do.

A story in press this week.

A Brazilian grandmother has been praying to a figurine from Lord of the Rings for years without realising.

The woman thought she was praying to Saint Anthony of Padua, but it turns out the figure was Elrond, Lord of Rivendell.  Her relative Gabriela Brandao made the discovery and posted it on Facebook.

The two are different.

According to Gabriela, she's got a new figure and this time it's the real deal.

Easy to allow our gaze to drift to the wrong thing and convince ourselves that is OK.

Today is the real thing!

And at the place and point of sacrifice - on the altar something should be altered.

As we share in Covenant today so we once again make our sacrifice – of ourselves.

It is easy to take our eyes of this, to be distracted, maybe focused on the wrong thing – perhaps even when we think we are doing the right thing. 

We remember that it is the way of Christ; that we give up our ways and our lives to receive and live his life.

It will cost

It will indicate priorities

It will be a sign of relationship.

Today, here, now, for you and me this is the place of sacrifice.

Exodus 24:3-11

³ When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, ‘Everything the Lord has said we will do.’ ⁴ Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. ⁶ Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, ‘We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.’

⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’

⁹ Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up ¹⁰ and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. ¹¹ But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

³¹ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord,
    ‘when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
³² It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband to them,’
declares the Lord.
³³ ‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,’ declares the Lord.
‘I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
³⁴ No longer will they teach their neighbour,
    or say to one another, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest,’
declares the Lord.
‘For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.’

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Mark 14:22-25

²² While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take it; this is my body.’

²³ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

²⁴ ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,’ he said to them. ²⁵ ‘Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’

Life, Light, Love

A Sermon based on John 1:1-14 preached on Christmas Eve at Easton Methodist Church, Portland, Dorset, on 24th December 2016.

One might look at this world and say “What a mess”.  Of course to do so might ignore the many good things around us and in our lives.  But there might be some justification in saying “What a Mess”.  Think of the news of terrorist attacks, ongoing conflicts, the inequality on the world, the homeless on our doorsteps, the way people can treat each other.

The Bible would tell us this is a result of sin, when people decide they know better than God and when they turn from God’s ways.

Billy Graham the well-known evangelist shared this in a sermon in 2006.

“Once I was walking near my home, and I looked down and saw an anthill that had just been crushed. I saw that the carefully planned home was ruined and that several ants had been killed and many injured. I wished for a moment that I were an ant. I wanted to be one of them so I could explain that I wanted to help them. But I had no way of communicating with them, so I went on my way. But when God looked down and saw the world devastated by sin, He did not go away! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That is what the incarnation means. God did something about our plight.”

Some will know that this year I am Chaplain to the Portland Town Mayor who has a Navel background within her family.  She has therefore had a badge made for me which tells people I am her “Sin Bosun”.  It’s another word for a Navel Chaplain.  The interesting thing about a Navel Chaplain is that whoever they talk to in the Navy they assume the same rank, coming down to the lowest rating and yet able to converse on equal terms with the Captain of a ship.   – How like that is the Incarnation?  Jesus coming to us on our terms,, relating at our level.  Yet we should not forget that he has the ear of God also as an equal member of the Trinity.

This is all encapsulated in the first verse of John 1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

The Word = Jesus.

Both Jews and Greeks would have understood that the Word meant something of divine power and authority – not just to do with speech but to do with action as well.

Charles Wesley put it like this in one hymn

Let earth and Heaven combine,
Angels and men agree,
To praise in songs divine
The incarnate Deity,
Our God contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made Man.

I wonder what you want for Christmas  What do you wish for?

A man walks into bar with an ostrich.  He sits.  Bartender asks for order.  “I’ll have a beer”.  Turns to ostrich “What’s yours?”  “I’ll have a beer too” says ostrich. (I have to say at this point that the Man and Ostrich were not good Methodists.) Bartender pours beers .  “£6.20 please”. Man reaches into pocket pulls out exact money.

Next day man and ostrich come into bar again.  Same thing.  Beer – ostrich too.  Man pulls out exact money from pocket again.

This becomes a routine until one evening quite late the two come in again.  “Usual?” says bartender.

“Well it’s close to Closing time so I’ll have a large Scotch” says the Man.     “Same for me” says the ostrich.

“That will be £7.40” says the bartender.  Once again man pulls out exact money from pocket and places on bar.

Bartender can’t hold back curiosity any longer.

“Excuse me Sir.  How do you manage to come up with the exact change out of your pocket every single time?”

“Well”, says Man “Several years ago found old lamp up in attic.  When I rubbed it a genie appeared and offered me two wishes. First wish was that if I ever have to pay for anything I just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money will always be there.”

“Brilliant” says Bartender.  “Most people would ask for a Million pounds or something  but you’ll always be rich for as long as you live”

“That’s right” said the man. “Whether it’s a pint of milk or a Rolls Royce the exact money is always there.

The bartender asks, “One other thing Sir….What’s with the ostrich?”

The man replies “My second wish was for a chick with long legs”.

I wonder what you want for Christmas?  What do you wish for?

Well I don’t know what you do wish for, but I’ll tell you what you can have as a result of God coming among us in Jesus as John explains in the first chapter of his gospel.

The benefits of this Incarnation -

Life v4

 ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. 

¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

John 10:10 (when Jesus is talking about being a gate for the sheep that enables protection and provides good pasture) I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

I don’t know whether you feel fulfilled.  Or whether you ache to be doing something, or involved with something that makes you feel fulfilled as a person.  As if the person you are was made for just such a thing.  Maybe that is a career, maybe some contribution to others, maybe a place to live.

This is not about money, or status, or power, but about being the person you were always meant to be.

Maybe it is a Care Worker (offering compassion and support); Teacher (who understands it is about vocation not a job); feeding the hungry on Westham Bridge; working with a charity and supporting it; seeing your skills and gifts blossom.

Jesus speaks of fulfilled life such as this.  John 14:6

⁶ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 4:14 (During an encounter with a Samaritan woman at a well) ^14 …whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’

John 1:4 - In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

Light is another benefit of the Incarnation.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 

The World can be dark:

Terrorist atrocities.

War and Conflict – Aleppo is not the only place.

Floods and Famines.

Our communities can have dark places:

Domestic Violence

Child Abuse

People crippled by debt

The need for Foodbanks

Our lives can be dark:

The painfulness of loss

The challenge of ill health – mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually

The scars of the past

The absence of esteem or love.

Into these dark places Jesus wants to be born – to shine light on that which is wrong, that which needs help, that which needs dealing with, to shine the way ahead.

To light what may be one small candle in the world, our communities or our lives – but that one dark candle even on its own is a powerful start.  For darkness cannot even overcome one candle.

Where is there a need for light in our world, community, lives?  Maybe we have been struggling in dark places for too long.

Choose light!

I read about a photograph on the wall of the museum of the concentration camp at Dachau is a large and moving photograph of a mother and her little girl standing in line of a gas chamber. The child, who is walking in front of her mother, does not know where she is going. The mother, who walks behind, does know, but is helpless to stop the tragedy. In her helplessness she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hands over her child's eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come. When people come into the museum they do not whisk by this photo hurriedly. They pause. They almost feel the pain. And deep inside I think that they are all saying: "O God, don't let that be all that there is."

In ways that might be only intellectual curiosity or in ways where we acknowledge the awfulness that we can find in the world it may be we have let run through our minds Don’t let that be all that there is”

Such darkness can exist in the world and in lives!  But we can choose light!

John 3 says ¹⁹ This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Do you remember that poster that has appeared in countless offices and many other places.

“Due to budget cuts the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off”.

We may feel like that sometimes but the light of Jesus can never be extinguished.  The Jewish Leaders and the Roman authorities thought they could do that.  But you can’t do that to Jesus – oh you can try, and sometimes it seems such a weak light – but you can never, never totally extinguish it.

. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

Even when you bury it the light of Christ has this uncomfortable habit of bursting out of the tomb.

Another benefit if the Incarnation is

Love

Channel 4 has a programme called “The Undateables”

It is a documentary series following people with challenging conditions who are looking for love. Sometimes people feel unlovable.  Jesus is the one who reaches out to touch, to love the undateables, the untouchables, the unlovables.

I do not know whether you feel unloved.  Maybe at this moment – or maybe for a long time.  The love that Jesus brings into our life is immense – there is nothing like it.

It is the nature of Jesus to love.  Remember the opening verse of John 1 told us of the nature of Jesus being God with us. 

1 John 4:16

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 

Just before that the writer of the epistle of John says

1 John 4:9

 ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

God is full of love.  When he created the world and us within it he created out of love. He takes the first step in love.  He reaches out on love.

John 15

⁹ ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

In our lives we can know life, light, love in a way that is impossible without Jesus.  For he brings into our lives the touch of the divine.  It’s like he lights the blue touch paper of life.  And this is not the end of the story – for all that is promised in the birth of Jesus is found to be so in the death and resurrection of Jesus as life conquers death, light conquers darkness, love conquers evil.

In a short while many people will be opening Christmas gifts. 

I wonder what you want for Christmas?  What do you wish for?

The best gift we could ever, ever, hope for and indeed receive is the gift of life, light, love that we can receive through Jesus.  A gift that helps deal with the mess of the world and our lives and which benefits us in so many ways.  And we receive it simply, by inviting the Christ Child that was born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem to be born in our hearts and lives today.

“If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.
If your greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Saviour.”

John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.