The Scapegoat

 

Leviticus 16:20-23

And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:

And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:

And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

 I will repeat that last verse that reads:

And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited; and he shall let the goat go into the wilderness.

Today we have turned to the Old Testament, to Leviticus, that book that deals with the old Jewish religious laws. 

What we have read deals with the ritual of that law, its description and how it was meant to be carried out.  The most obvious thing about this religion was that it was a sacrificial religion.  At one stage, we might say in the early development of Judaism as it arose from a pagan world, that it engaged not only in the sacrifice of animals but potentially, engaged in that of human sacrifice too.  In the book of Genesis 22 we have God’s initial instructions to Abraham to offer up his son Isaac to offer him up, to sacrifice his only son, as a burnt offering to God.  We know though that it was God’s intention that in the event this should not come to pass, because God uttered these words saying:

Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. for now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me (22:12)

Thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. There’s a resonance here with a text from the New Testament a text that readily springs to mind, which are these words from the Gospel of John (3:16)

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

But there the similarity ends because Jesus’ death on the cross took place and was an act of sacrificial love.  We see this in the words of Jesus when he says:

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man may lay down his life for his friends (15:13)

Or, I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.  10:11

What can we say about Abraham, Abraham who loved or feared God enough to offer up his beloved son as a sacrifice?  I think we can say that in the context of the story of Abraham and Isaac, that Abraham had a particular relationship with God, a relationship that I think would have evaded most of us, so perhaps we cannot make a judgement.  But we can say that that relationship of Abraham to God led to God’s judgement, a judgement as always, a judgement of infinite wisdom and love.  I think before we go any further it has to be said, though perhaps it hardly needs saying that Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac did not take place, and secondly the death of Christ on the cross was a once and for all sacrifice and as Paul said in his letter to the Hebrews (12:2)

Jesus endured the cross, despised the cross and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So, having alluded to the story of Abraham and Isaac and the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ we stay with the theme of sacrifice, and we return to our reading from Leviticus - the story of the goat.

In fact, that particular ordinance described in the Mosaic law in Leviticus, is about the ritual slaughter and sacrifice of animals it was thus ordained that the priest, Aaron could only enter into the holy places of the tabernacle (the holy tent) after he had offered a young bullock as a sin offering and a ram as a burnt offering.

Later in that same ritual, at the same event, two goats would be presented before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation (7).  Then lots would be cast to decide which of the two goats would be ritually slaughtered as a sin offering. 

What we may ask now, becomes of the second goat? The goat on which the lot did not fall.  And herein lies the story of the scapegoat.  In modern life, of course, we have all heard that expression, ‘the scapegoat’, and we know what it means when it is said in day-to-day conversation, or on the news, we know what it means when they say that a particular person, a certain individual is being scapegoated for political or corporate failure.  In American slang that person becomes the “fall guy” for a failure, a failure that’s really integral to the organisation, or a failure caused by someone else’s poor decision making at the most powerful level or levels of the organization or the company or even the government. A fall guy, a scapegoat to take the blame.

 So, for those two poor goats waiting outside the tent of the Tabernacle there is no good news, one is going to be slaughtered and offered up as a sin offering before being eaten and the other is going to become the ‘fall guy’; the scapegoat. Now we come to a curious bit.

We know, don’t we, that William Tyndale (1494- 1536) was the first to translate the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English?  Well, it was Tyndale who invented that word, the ‘scapegoat’, bringing it for the first time into the English language because actually there was no equivalent for the word in Hebrew.

So how does this scapegoat thing work out?  Well in Tyndale's, I suppose more humane reasoning, the goat who wins the lottery so to speak, (doesn’t get selected for immediate slaughter) becomes the scapegoat – it means the goat gets to escape, hence the term scapegoat.  But of course, the poor old goat doesn’t get off Scot free, because as we have seen the sins of Israel at that yearly event would be symbolically placed on a goat’s head by the priest and that goat would then be driven into the wilderness. 

To the assembled watching congregation, we can easily see that this very visual ritual, this powerful symbolic act, could help to unite people in their faith and to ease them, in the short term at least, from their perceived burden of sin, it could help to alleviate their troubled consciences.

That scapegoat carrying all their sins away.  A bit like standing at the window watching your wheelie bin being emptied and that dust cart carrying all your rubbish away – till next week.

But, back to the scapegoat, the fall guy in this scenario – the innocent animal that carries the sins of Israel, far away into the wilderness.  Now, there are other interpretations of this story, for example in Jewish legend a there’s tradition that says that the scapegoat did not get to be released into the wilderness but was thrown from a cliff and killed as a sacrifice to the demon Azazel the idea being that the sins committed are thus returned to Satan.  But I suppose, whichever way we look at this question, the blood of an innocent animal is still used to expiate the sins of the guilty.

The scapegoating mechanism is really fundamental to the human condition.  It exists in all times and places.  I once read a story of a country where when things went wrong, as they would, from time to time – that the common response would be then to blame the devil saying, “the devil’s in it”.  In that country, one day a farmer was driving a cart full of produce to market, when a wheel fell off the cart.  Without thinking the farmer shouted ‘the devil’s in it’ Later that day the farmer arrived at the market only to be met by the devil who asked him “Why did you blame me when the wheel came off your cart?  I’ve been told what you said, but I was nowhere near you at the time!” 

That simple story may give us pause for thought and to reflect on those words of William Shakespeare who wrote, and I paraphrase “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves”.

What do I mean? Well, I’m sure you’ve worked it out. When I say to you that when we cannot find an external solution to an inner problem when really the sin, the deficit, the mistake, call it what you will, belongs to and resides within each one of us, it’s always easier and more convenient to blame external forces or outside of our control. We conveniently forget that in some way we too need to look closer to home, to find the source of the problem, to look to ourselves and to shoulder the blame or responsibility. 

This blaming and looking down on others is really part of the hypocrisy of religion that Jesus confronted, but we are not done with the theme of sacrifice yet.  We do not forget that recurring Christian symbol, the holy lamb of God is the lamb who is sacrificed on the cross for our sins.  In the Gospel of John, verse 1:29, John the Baptist greeted Jesus’ arrival on the scene with these words:

Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!

If we examine that statement, we realise that the Lamb of God takes away not the sins of the world but the sin of the world and the sin of the world is to project our own sins or shortcomings onto others.  It’s called hypocrisy and it means when we blame others or point the finger at others we remain in the shadows of our own darkness and imperfection.  In other words, this is what Jesus meant when he said (8:12) 

I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.

The purpose of the light of the world was to reveal the glory of God to us, to see in that light, his perfect holiness and then see our own imperfections, in that pure light, see our own sins, and to repent.  Not sin that we can project on to the head of a sacrificial animal, or lay on someone else rather than ourselves, but rather our own sin which we need to own and to see that, through confession, through repentance, through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we may truly be reconciled to God and by His grace be forgiven.

That saying, “the lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world”.   I know, you might be sitting there trying to work it all out.  And Jesus knew that his disciples, ordinary people like you and me might have some difficulty in understanding so he summed up the blindness and hypocrisy, the sin of the world when he said:

They shall put you out of the synagogue yea the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

And we can see that’s true, there are religious killings taking place today and everyday throughout the world by men who think that they are doing God’s work, killing others in the name of God because they too are in darkness.  You might say well, I’m not responsible for that, or well, I wasn’t there when they crucified the messenger, crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, I wasn’t there with the mob crying for his blood, but the question is where are you today, where are we today, as we look back at Easter now and remember Jesus’ cry from the cross:

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34) 

The question is this: have we turned to the light of Christ, have we been convicted of our own sin or are we still in the darkness? One word: repent!  Let us give thanks to God for Christ, the light of the world.

Photograph: William Holman Hunt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

   A Spiritual Sketch
   On the passing of a godly man.

 

           David Stanley 1935-2024

I first met David Stanley at Flowery Field Free Christian Church in 2008.

He introduced himself to me shortly after the Sunday afternoon service and insisted on giving me a guided tour of the church building. Proclaiming his Trinitarian beliefs, he pointed out the crucifix on the wall.

Looking back after 15 years of friendship, I can say that David always remained the same open and forthright character that I met back then.  He could be blunt and outspoken, but he was never unkind, and there was underlying gentility and deep faith.

During my years of ministry I met David on many occasions and our friendship developed.           I remember one of our early contacts - a meeting of the Unitarian Christian Association, held at Stalybridge Church,  when he told me squarely that there were “no Christians at Unitarian Chapel Oldham.”

I suppose that’s really where David really stepped into the life of Unitarian Chapel Oldham.  Change was in the air as we reconsidered our place within the current Unitarian community, and started to become clearer about our spiritual foundations.

It was David who instigated the installation of a cross, placed prominently on the front wall of the chapel, directly above the reading desk from where the sermons are also preached.

Then in 2020 came Covid and the government’s lockdown policy, which had a major impact on the congregation.  Deep divisions arose between those who supported the government’s policy and those of us who felt keeping places of worship open was essential.   The eventual decision to remain open after the October lockdown resulted in a painful split in the congregation. Resignations and departures effectively brought to an end the Unitarian witness in Oldham, leaving a remnant that was in effect an overwhelmingly Christian congregation.

We were united not only by our opposition to the lockdown, but also to modern Unitarian thought, particularly the ‘anything goes’ attitude towards faith and ethical issues. In the end a  decision was made to separate completely from Unitarianism and to fully embrace a Trinitarian and conventionally Christian faith.

In 2023 we decided to drop the word ‘Unitarian’ from our title, and officially changed the name to simply ‘Oldham Chapel’. The chapel defines itself as Free Christian. In which way are we Free Christian? Only in the sense that we are not doctrinally bound to any church denomination. We believe that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. that Jesus is Lord and we believe in the sufficiency of scripture:

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God be completely equipped for every good work.
                                                                                                                            (2 Timothy3:16-17)

It would have been unthinkable, when I first began my ministry at Oldham in 2010, that I should be writing this some fourteen years later. But all things come to pass according to God’s will. Thus, David came to us at a particular juncture in his life and at the time of God’s choosing.  As I’ve already said, David found his place in the Oldham congregation, a devout man, he encouraged others in the faith. He was loved and respected, but he would not hold back from rebuking anyone if he thought it necessary.

I have many personal memories of David, but if there were to be one outstanding memory then that would have to be the occasion when I first had the privilege of officiating at a service of Holy Communion at Flowery Field Church.  

David, along with other members of the church came to the altar rails to receive the bread and wine. On both knees he made the sign of the cross as I looked at him, before the table of Christ, so to speak, it was there I saw his sincerity, his devotion; his love of the Lord.

I have often thought about that moment, where I really saw David for the first time and afterwards reflected on what a blessing to me that moment had been.

I think also, of a favourite hymn we shared: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

I recall him singing this hymn with others at an open air Whitsuntide service of worship at the   market ground in Mossley.

The other thing that comes to mind about David was his courageous battle against age, his        encroaching infirmity, his determination to press on and to get to worship whenever possible. There are times, I know, when perhaps he would have been better off staying in bed or staying at home in comfort, but he forced his weary body to get up to go to either church or chapel. I know that at Oldham Chapel, and at Flowery Field Church he will be deeply missed and we mourn for him. He will also be missed at the church of St Thomas in Hyde, where he regularly took Holy Communion on Tuesdays.

David is survived by his wife, Carol, his sons Robert and Christopher and his daughter Jill. Also his stepsons, Peter and Philip and his stepdaughter Suzanne.

Our prayers and thoughts are with all of David’s family at this time. We have all been blessed by knowing David and having him in our lives. May the Lord bless him and may the Lord comfort Carol and his family in their time of sorrow and loss.

Paul 10

  

 

And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully and to stone them.  They were ware of it, and fled into Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia and unto the region that lieth round about:  And there they preached the Gospel. (Acts 14:5-7)

One of the things I have noticed in life is that knowledge or information can be difficult to remember, even stories can be. One of the most basic methods to help us remember is of course to make a list. Take for example, the stories of Paul’s life as described in the Acts of the Apostle’s. It is a long, complicated story and much of it is understated. In other words, there are details of his story we simply don’t have and there are some details available from other sources, not in the Bible, and there are things we can also surmise.  If we have a basic frame work, it can help us to remember the main points of Paul’s story. I am not going to give you a big list this but it might be helpful to you to remind you, as we go along, that so far, on Paul’s first missionary journey we have followed him from Antioch in Syria, sailing to Cyprus, and then from Cyprus he sailed to Asia Minor, (now known as Turkey) and there he travelled to Antioch Pisidia and from there to Iconium. That is as far as we have got.

Let’s turn that into a list of places Paul and Barnabas visited after leaving the church in Antioch, Syria.

1). Cyprus

2). Antioch (Asia Minor: Modern day Turkey)

3). Iconium (Asia Minor: Modern day Turkey)

Now, after Paul and Barnabas left Antioch, after they were expelled and facing persecution, they ‘shook off the dust of their feet’ as the Bible puts it, and they travelled on some 80 – 90 miles, west to Iconium.

In writing this sermon it occurred to me that, heroic as Paula and Barnabas no doubt were, they may not have made all their journeys by foot. Why I say this is because there is nothing in the New Testament that refers to their specific mode of travel. 

When we think about Paul, we do not have to think too deeply to recognise that Paul an extremely intelligent, shrewd, cultured and educated man, which he certainly was, would naturally use the existing available modes of transport as they were at that time to travel the distances that he did. 

Both he and Barnabas and whoever else was travelling in their entourage would have to a certain degree to be self-reliant, as far as possible, but they also relied on local hospitality and of course they would have relied on their supporters wherever they could find them, Preparation for travel, travel plans and security would be just as important then as they are today. 

At first, I wondered if they might use camels, if they Paul and Barnabas might travel by camel but I didn’t know, so I checked it on the internet -   The answer is that no one really knows.  It is a question of some debate.  The Jews, as you know, have their purity laws, and according to the Old Testament, the camel is an unclean animal.  According to the book of Leviticus (11 – 4):

‘… the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you’

However, I have also read that there might have been a cleansing ritual, that may have allowed Jewish travellers to ride camels – this is by no means certain.  In any case, there is a tradition for example that Paul was riding a horse on his famous journey to Damascus, I would say that he probably was, but that is only a guess. 

Cyprus, Antioch and now Iconium. We don’t know exactly how long Paul spent in Iconium, after he and Barnabas left Antioch but it was a relatively significant amount of time, as we know.

But the story moves on now, and you will recall how we have already reflected on the division that Paul’s gospel message had created in Iconium and so we are told:

And there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews with their rulers to use them despitefully and to stone them. (14:5)

So, we already know that Paul and Barnabas, as their preaching divided opinion in the city, we already know that they were facing an increasingly volatile situation.  Now as a student of the Bible, I am often obliged to use commentaries and other sources of information to help to bring detail to the stories of the Bible that I must preach.  One such very famous writer of such commentaries was the late William Barclay and so I’ve handed over to him, to his work, a description of the situation facing Saul and Barnabas at that time. Barclay wrote:

As usual they began in the Synagogue and as usual they had good success; but the jealous Jews stirred up the mob and once again Paul and Barnabas had to move on.  It has to be noted that Paul and Barnabas were more and more taking their lives in their hands.  What was proposed in Iconium was nothing other than a lynching.  The further on Paul and Barnabas went the further they got from civilisation.  In the more civilised cities, their lives at least were safe because Rome kept order and a lynching would have been speedily punished; but now, out in the wilds, Paul and Barnabas are to be ever under the threat of mob violence from the excitable Phrygian crowds stirred up by the Jews.  Whatever else these two men were, they were brave men.  It always takes courage to be a Christian because it always takes courage to take a way that’s different from the crowd.’

Now before coming to Iconium both men, as you know, were in Pisidian Antioch, and as I’ve already said, on leaving they ‘shook off the dust of their feet’ it was a sign of rejecting those who had rejected them,

So we can be in no doubt that the persecution that came to Paul and Barnabas in Antioch would be more than a gentle cautionary letter from the town council.  Raising up persecution against others looks a lot uglier than that, and one you would do well to escape from such a situation; relatively unscathed.  In Iconium however, the intended nature of this kind of persecution seems to be more explicit:

And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully and to stone them (15; 6)

What can we say about this, other than to say ‘it was a close-run thing.’  The attempt to lynch and to murder was already underway when news of the impending attack reached Paul and Barnabas. We don’t need to labour this point, other than to comment on the unity of the forces that were attempting to move in for the kill.  We could say also, that the instigators were all agreed on what might be termed, the A-B-C policy: Anything But Christian.

The disparate forces of evil coming together on this one unifying A-B-C idea.  You know that this Anything but Christian policy is increasingly prevalent today in the 21^st century.  It’s not that we Christians have a persecution complex, that somehow, we just think that the world ‘has it in for us’ – it’s just that it happens to be true.  When Christ sent his apostles out to preach, we can read in the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10 the words of advice he gave to his disciples:

Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. (16)

In the following verse we see the united forces of opposition of the Jews, the kings and the powers of this world and the gentiles. the pagans:

But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues; (17)

But ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the gentiles. (18)

And finally, as we think of Paul and Barnabas facing the hostile mob and their departure from Iconium, again, we can consider these words of Jesus, his advice to his apostles in a hostile world.

But when they persecute you in their city, flee ye into another; for verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the son of Man be come. (10:23)

So, there we have it – ‘when they persecute you in their city,' said Jesus 'flee ye unto another.’

It is obvious from this text that Christians are not to go out and seek martyrdom just for the sake of it, but as our Lord implies, that rather, we are to act prudently. Remembering also those words, of Jesus, that we should be, ‘Wise as the serpent and harmless as doves.’  It is also clear that there are occasions when we will have no choice but to lay down our lives for Christ’s sake, for our faith and for all that we believe.  But Saul and Barnabas acted wisely when they were informed that thugs and killers were already committed to ‘use them despitefully and to stone them,’ and as stated in our text:

They were aware of it, and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth about.

I think as we consider the flight of Paul and Barnabas from Iconium there is one detail that we must not overlook and that is this - that stoning, as it is known, was a Jewish method of execution and thus we can see from that the persecution, the intended execution of Paul and Barnabas had been planned and instigated by the Jewish leaders, it was then that stirred up the gentiles and the civic leaders in Iconium

Perhaps the best-known story of stoning in the bible is the story of Jesus and the woman who was about to be stoned to death for adultery – its recorded in the Gospel of John (8: 1-11) and we have the unforgettable words of Jesus who said to the would-be killers:

‘He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.’

Jesus saved her from death by stoning, this ancient killing method is also known as lapidation.  By its very nature this lapidation this stoning is a brutal method of execution and it would take the victim or the offender anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours to die.

According to Jewish tradition (Sanhedrin Ch 6 Mishnah 4) the offender was pushed off a cliff or a precipice – no more than about 12 feet high – he would be pushed by the hips so that he fell face first onto the rocks below.  He would then be turned on his back, and if he was still alive a huge rock would be dropped on his chest.  If he was still alive, then the crowd would pelt him with stones until he died. 

Once, Jesus preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, when an angry crowd tried to kill him in the same way.

And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way. (Luke 4:28-30)

Perhaps I digress, but at least we should be in no doubt concerning the prevalent or potential undercurrent of violence that preachers of the early church would have to face.  So, Paul and Barnabas prudently decided to leave Iconium. It was indeed a wise decision. We can also say that Paul and Barnabas did: ‘flee into Lystra and Derbe but they did not let the fear of their experience drive them underground. As we know, they were now in even more dangerous and lawless surroundings than they previously had been, but undeterred, they continued where they left off in Antioch and Iconium, they continued preaching the gospel.

There are two sayings that come to mind when we think of Saul and Barnabas and their fleeing Iconium, the first saying is that ‘Discretion is the better part of valour’ and the second is that, ‘A good general knows how to retreat as well as how to advance.’ The story of Paul and Barnabas and the early Christians is not a story of defeat, but rather quite the opposite and as Paul's story in the Acts of the Apostles continues, we will continue to see examples of his outstanding courage. Indeed, churches were established in the towns or cities from where Paul preached and from where he suffered persecution and expulsion, but he returned to visit those his churches established in these places to teach and to encourage. The Christian story is not a story of defeat but rather a story of victory and triumph. How could it be otherwise with a leader like Paul? There is a tradition that goes right back to the second century, of a man, named Onesimus, who lived in Iconium. who set out to meet Paul as he got near the city. He gave a description of Paul and it is written down like this:

And he saw Paul approaching, a man small in size, with meeting eyebrows, with a rather large nose, bad-headed, bowlegged, strongly built, full of grace, for at times he looked like a man, and at times he had the face of angel.

Let us give thanks to God for raising up such leaders as Paul and may continue to find his work a blessing and an inspiration to us.

 

Advent, Christmas and Love

 

 

Every year, during Advent, and Christmas we celebrate the same gospel message, the coming of Jesus Christ, our Lord, the waiting and then the arrival of the Christ Child, born in a stable in Bethlehem all that time ago, and thereafter born each year in our hearts. The sermon may change but the message does not.

Once again, we to a favourite reading taken from the Gospel of John 1:14

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

We can read these words and obtain the idea that this is poetry and indeed it is, we can read this text and sense that these words convey a profound truth and indeed they do. William Barclay commented that the Gospel of Mark deals with the story of Jesus, ‘plainly, bluntly and literally,’ but the Gospel of John, on the other hand sees things ‘subtly, profoundly, and spiritually.'

When you go inside a traditional Church building, as you face the chancel you will see the reading desk or the lectern to your left and the raised pulpit to your right. The kind of reading desk, this lectern I am particularly referring to often has a wooden carving of an eagle or a solid brass eagle integrated quite beautifully into it. This is not simply for decoration but rather it’s because the eagle is the symbol of St John and it’s on this reading desk, this lectern that you will find the church’s Bible and from there of course, the lessons are read out.

The eagle, I suppose, can represent many things, the soaring eagle which can reach heights of up to ten thousand feet and cannot be blinded when flying into the face of the sun. And so, the Gospel of John is simply not just an account of the life of Christ as recounted by the other gospels. But rather, the Gospel of John, like the soaring eagle transcends limiting boundaries reaching out to God in the spiritual realm. This is the word of God. We cannot really see God except through the manifestation of his creation, but we know that his creation is the manifestation of love of creative intelligence and of wisdom, God’s action in the world is also known as the Word. So, when John tells us that ‘the Word became flesh’ it means that Jesus was the Word, that God was met in Jesus. ‘Those who have seen me have seen the Father,’ said Jesus.

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

We know that in this earthly life that it’s not given to us to know God entirely, it’s not given to us to come face to face with God, but through the scriptures we can read his word and we can hear his Word and know that we are his creation because we all bear the image of God. Jesus did refer to God as Father or Abba, that intimate expression between father and child and in doing so he was giving us a sense of our proximity to God. It's known as a filial relationship. That’s the relationship we should seek with God. And That relationship is supremely and simply a relationship of love and that love, the love of God is the ultimate reality. In the end, we can say that love is all there is. John in his first letter said that those who know love, love God and those who don’t know love don’t know God. Everything else is secondary, everything else is temporary, everything else impermanent. As St Paul put it:

 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (Cor 13)

In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus said to everyone ‘You are the light of the world’ he said. ‘Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’ What Jesus wanted for himself he wanted for us too.

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

Let the Word become flesh and make his dwelling amongst us. Let the living Christ that indwells each one of us become the light that shines before others so that we too may glorify our God, our Father in heaven. Amen.

 

 Photo: By NotFromUtrecht - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12684188

Paul 9

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren. Acts 14:2

In our previous sermon we considered the spirit filled ministry of Paul and Barnabas, how they both came to Iconium, that magnificent and major trading town under Roman rule as it was then. This town of Iconium now known as Konya which today we would say is situated in Southern Turkey.  It was there that both men, Paul, and Barnabas, entered the synagogue and preached so powerfully that, to belief in Christ, they won over a huge number, not only of Jews, but of Gentiles too.

 Again, I would remind you of those words of Henry Matthew, who in commentating on this story wrote:

Yet the success was not to be attributed to the manner of their preaching, but to the Spirit of God who made use of them.

‘They (that is Paul and Barnabas) spoke in such a way that a great multitude both of Jews and also of the Greeks, believed’ This is a phenomenal claim! How is it that such men like Paul and Barnabas could succeed on such a scale when going forward into history thousands of others have often failed. So, we must ask that question, ‘what was it that they had’ that most preachers lack? I think the answer is quite simply, because they stood aside and made room for God.

I think it works like this – in a struggle for faith, in a struggle for faith and to live a life of witness to God, a life of witness to Christ, failure often arises because we get in the way of God. We get in the way of God because of our pride, because of our vanity. You might think that good preaching is all about performance and polish and popularity, but it can become an ego trip where there’s no room for God.  An example of this ‘getting in the way’ of God or the temptation to personal vanity can be found in this little story of when somebody once told John Bunyan that he had preached a delightful sermon, “You are too late,” Bunyan replied, “the devil told me that before I left the pulpit.’ 

This story gives us an example of Bunyan’s personal humility and that story warns us too, that all glory must go to God. All glory must go to God – we cannot preach God, we cannot serve God, unless we make room for him, unless we let him in – otherwise we will just be full of ourselves. When we get in the way, when we are full of ourselves the glory of God cannot become manifest, the Holy Spirit will be absent when we are puffed up with pride and when we are puffed up with our own self-importance. 

Paul was once known as Saul, the Pharisee Saul, the persecutor of the Church until he was blinded and humbled on the road to Damascus. Afterwards he was filled with the Holy Spirit, but not before God speaking of Saul said, “he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel, for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake - God’s words – I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.

Years later, in his second letter to the Corinthians, the most personal of Paul’s letters that we have, Paul recounts how much he did suffer for the Gospel of Christ, how much he did suffer for God.  The hard work, the hardships he had to face, the beatings he had to endure, the shipwrecks at sea and the burden of worrying about the Church and all its problems.  What a transformation had been wrought in Saul! Saul the zealous Pharisee, persecutor of the Church, blinded on the road to Damascus and then had to be led by the hand, like a child, into the city.  And it was all part of God’s plan, all part of God’s plan. We might recall those words from Frances Havergal’s hymn “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee”:

Take my will and make it Thine,

It shall be no longer mine.

Take my heart: it is Thine own,

It shall be Thy royal Throne.

That’s what God did to Paul – God broke his self-willed spirit; he broke his pride in readiness for the Holy Spirit enter in. 

Years ago, put up on the outside walls of this chapel was a message reading, ‘that we as a chapel individually don’t hold the same beliefs, but rather that each person is encouraged to develop his or her own Faith in a continuing search for truth.’ But this statement we had on the walls of our chapel totally ignored that God through his creation had already proven the truth of his existence. As Paul put it in his Letter to the Romans, such people, in the face of such evidence of the existence of God, such deniers as they are, are godless and wicked. We come to the same problem again; pride. On the other hand, the message of the early Church was to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That message means we must throw away our pride as Paul had to throw away his.

So, when we think of the humbled and transformed Paul, we can also think of Frances Havergal’s hymn, Take my life and let it be – And if we want further proof of what God’s desire is for each of us we only have to turn Psalm 51: 17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise.

If we just break that Psalm down and consider it for a moment, we can see that it really says a lot.  It says, it tells us, what God is looking for – and what He wants from us.  In the simplest of terms, it is the abandonment of pride, to see the sheer futility of our vain selves, when we see it and know it for ourselves it will break our hearts, it will lead us to that contrition, that repentance, it will lead us to cry as Augustine did to cry these words: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

And so now I hope we’re beginning to get the picture now, the picture now of what is required from each one of us and I’m hoping also we’re also beginning to get a spiritual description and understanding of Paul and his preaching, and I mean preaching, not oratory or cleverness as the world would have it, but rather to say it was something much more awe-inspiring than that. His preaching was accompanied by the presence of the Holy Spirit, a sense of the supernatural, a sense of the supernatural going out to the congregation, going out to those who were listening, a palpable sense of the presence of God.

And so, I think it is worthwhile to consider that this points to the calibre of the men, and the required holiness of the preachers, who should be called to lead our Church today.  I think it is worth our while to be discerning about the churches we might attend or associate with. In such churches we should ask are we merely being bored or are we being entertained or on the other hand is God’s spirit really there in the worship and in the preaching?

Who like Paul and Barnabas could speak now so that great multitudes would believe?  But we’ll leave it there, to think about later, because now we come again to our text, the second verse of Chapter 14 of the Acts of the Apostles

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.

It’s here then, that despite everything that can be said, the spirit-led preaching, the sense of the presence of God, that we now, we come back to earth with a bump.  It takes only a little acid to sour the milk, only a little yeast to leaven the bread.  Because often it seems, you know, you can get a good thing going, a project or a campaign, a good organisation up and running; whatever, but that project can soon become a casualty, that project can become a victim of its own success in its early stages when it encounters opposition.  And the opposition, we should not have any reason to doubt, arose in Iconium from the same kind of opponents that Paul and Barnabas had met in Antioch. That opposition could be summed up in two words: 'vested interest.’ They were up against other interests, other considerations.

You see, it was unacceptable to the Jewish leaders to hear that the resurrected Christ was indeed the fulfilment of their own prophetic scriptures. But that message was indeed the message of the early Christian church – and to the ears of the Jewish leaders it was an anathema.  And in any case, since they had Gentiles of some social standing attached to their synagogues, who were making generous contributions to the upkeep of the synagogue, such Jewish leaders would be in no mood to countenance the arrival and the message of the Christian Church.

So, we have that verse (again)

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.

I suppose you could say that this story just looks like a rerun of the previous episode in Antioch, in terms of what could be seen as the usual kind of opposition. Of course, but I’d ask you to stay with me anyway, because there’s much more to it than that.  We are talking here about the establishment of the Church, Christ’s Church.  And the thing we must consider is that Christ himself, Jesus came into the world in the teeth of opposition. We remember for example, how Herod murdered the infants in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the infant Christ. How John, in his Gospel, wrote of Jesus, described Jesus as ‘the light,’ saying,

And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (1:15)

And this is the condemnation, that light came into the world and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (3:19)

But even so, there were those who did receive the good news of Jesus Christ with great joy, they received it from Paul and Barnabas, as you know, before they were expelled from Antioch, before they reached Iconium – and they left behind them in Antioch followers and disciples who were filled with joy and filled with the Holy Spirit. One thing to bear in mind though – to hear some people speak of Christianity, you’d think that becoming a Christian lead to a gentle and passive alternative life-style. And when you hear some versions of Jesus, you’d think he was a laid-back hippie who embraced woke liberal values. If that was the truth then perhaps there wouldn’t be too much opposition to Jesus today.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  You don’t need a degree in theology to know that.  Just hear these words from the Gospel of John (3:36)

He that believeth in the son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall be upon him.

These are uncompromising words; they are hard words. They are hard words because spiritually speaking, we exist in a war zone. There is an ongoing struggle between good and evil – earlier I spoke about the sign outside the chapel that sign that appeared to advocate different paths for the spiritual quest– but what does Jesus say about this?  If we are to turn to the Gospel of Matthew (7:13 – 14) we can see that there are only two choices as Jesus said,

You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

Let us come back to our text again:

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.

We need to be clear about this – the leaders of the synagogue opposed Paul preaching Christ, for their own reasons, and stirred up the Gentiles against such preaching too.  It can be said then that they would rather maintain the status quo and the predominance of Judaism than allow others the freedom to come to Christ. The situation in the world is the same today – I mention Judaism, because Christianity grew out of Judaism and I mention Judaism to be faithful to the story and events recorded in the scriptures of the New Testament, but I think we do have to be clear, there is an exclusivity to Christianity, that today the inter-faith proponents have conveniently forgotten. It’s something that many Christians have forgotten. The broad gate and the broad path represent the world and all the other religions, the narrow gate and the narrow path represent Christ. And what did Jesus say?   

I am the door (gate): by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

Well, you can’t get any more exclusive than that. We should know that the world cannot and will not accept the exclusive uniqueness of the Christian faith. Today they are so offended by they call it fundamentalism and they are offended by those who uphold the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Jesus said:

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. John 10:34.

Christians in many parts of the world today face conflict, persecution and even murder.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus said

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Matthew 5:11-13)

So, let us pray for the strength and courage to face conflict and persecution, and not for us to be discouraged but rather to let our faith be a continual source of joy to us: 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). Amen