Sermons from Rev. David Jenkins 2004

Theme: God is with us ("Emmanuel")

1. NOT ALONE- CHALLENGING                 First preached 12 December 2004
2. EVERYDAY GOD                                          First preached 19 December
3. GOD OF SIMPLICITY AND MYSTERY       First preached 24 December 2004 

NOT ALONE- CHALLENGING 

First preached 12 December 2004

The faith that God is with us is immensely reassuring. In no circumstance of our life can we ever be alone. There is no such thing as a God-forsaken place or a God-forsaken person. It is hugely comforting to realize that we are not on our own. It is the source of the deepest possible joy and sense of purpose, that God loves this world so much, as to share our life totally.

And yet- while one aspect of God being with us is greatly reassuring- something to shout about from the rooftops-there’s another aspect of the continual presence of God with us that may cause us to feel at best uncomfortable and at worst highly challenged.

God’s being with us is not like a child’s favourite blanket, teddy or dummy-it is more like a mirror that shows us ourselves as we are; a telephone whose ring startles us and whose message disturbs us; a letter, whose contents make us uneasy.

When we hear the news, in political debates, in our work or home situations, not only is God not referred to very often, but the constant secular assumption is made that, if God exists at all, it is for those who are “that way inclined” to practice a privatized religion.

The concept of a God, who is the Creator of all, to whom we are all accountable, before whom our lives are judged, is not taken seriously in most areas of life –from military planning to stock market economics- what has God got to do with anything?

Integral to the Advent message is the belief that we are accountable for what we do- not only to one another, important as that is, but to the One who has given us life, the One who has entrusted this world to us.

So we should feel uncomfortable when we continue to pollute planet earth; we should feel uneasy when wars and conflicts take place; we should feel awful when we know that people are being oppressed; we should sleep uneasily when we aware of terrible injustices.

This is God’s world.

God is neither distant nor absent. God is here. God is involved. God is with us.

So let us allow the challenges of the Hebrew prophets, the challenges of Jesus, the challenges of Twenty First century prophets to keep unsettling our complacency, to keep shaming us into action.

The various readings we have heard tonight reflect the reality of living in an unjust world- a world of debt and exploitation; a world of corruption; a world of treachery and genocide; a world of dire poverty; a world of cruelty and abuse.

Be challenged that God is with us. The constant theme of repentance-putting things right-is sounding loud and clear at Advent- not as pretty tinkling Christmas bells, but as loud, discordant chords that cry out to us to work with God to restore harmony to the world.

God with us challenges us; but there is hope, too. For if we do work with God things do not have to stay the same; human history does not have to simply deteriorate. There is hope. The oppressed, who long for life to improve, are right to hold on in hope; because God is with us, challenging us, moving us, to work for justice, to pursue peace, to live compassionately.

Be challenged into changing life for those most in need; and may we find our comfort in discovering the God who works beside us.

EVERYDAY GOD

First preached 19 December

For the shepherds, it had been an ordinary day like any other. They were at work as usual. And suddenly “the glory of the Lord shone around them”. If you were to analyse people’s experience of spiritual awareness, you would find that many, many times it is in the ordinary circumstances that the extraordinary encounter with God comes.

We find God, not only in special places, in consecrated buildings, or at holy shrines, but in the mundane, routine business of everyday living, which can be suddenly shot through with significance. To those shepherds it must have seemed a curious contrast-out in the fields “a great company of the heavenly host”, and in a stable a tired man, a girl and a baby. Yet the two experiences are linked.

Although the glory of God is much less visible, audible and obvious in the shabby, dingy stable than in the appearance of angels, it is there just the same. It’s a sign of the earthiness and humility of God that our Saviour should be born in such a place. It is a reminder that God is not aloof from our basic moments, even our sordid ones; a reminder of God’s caring about every detail of our lives- our everyday, ordinary lives.

There was once a European monarch who worried his court by often disappearing and walking incognito amongst his people. When he was asked not to do this for security reasons, he said, “I cannot rule my people unless I know how they live.”

The faith we celebrate this evening is that God knows how we live, because He’s lived alongside us, claiming no special advantage, but entering into life at the deep end. In the Word becoming flesh, God experiences human life from the inside. Instead of some false division between the sacred and the secular, here is the everyday God who can turn all secular moments into sacred ones; who infuses all of life with dignity and meaning.

One of life’s greatest adventures is discovering the presence of God in our work, our family life, our personal existence.

In the moments of realisation, when we appreciate more deeply than we usually do, the preciousness of another human life (our child, our grandchild, a loving friend or partner), we are encountering the God whose very nature is love.

In the moments when we become acutely aware of our failure, of the poverty of our contribution to the general good, of what is deeply lacking in ourselves, we are encountering the God who shames us into facing up to life, and gives us the impetus to transform it. 

In the moments when we experience joy and depth; when we glimpse something of how good life is, of how much life matters, of the profundity and mystery of human existence; we are being encountered by the God, whose being is from everlasting to everlasting, and who holds out to us sudden illuminations of what belongs to eternity.

Look for God in your everyday- over Christmas and at all times.

Be prepared to be changed by what you find.

Treasure every day. Each one is the day the Lord has made. In each one there are fresh opportunities of receiving insight, of growing in character, of offering service.

The everyday God is with you.

GOD OF SIMPLICITY AND MYSTERY 

First preached 24 December 2004 

The birth of the baby was basic, simple. It was also, like all births, mysterious, wonderful.

There remained both a simplicity and a mystery about the child as he grew up, exploring the temple as a 12-year-old, intent on pursuing his father’s business. He was a child with all the engaging and disconcerting directness of childhood; but he was also uniquely aware of a sense of destiny, which would set him apart from all other children.

As a man his lifestyle and speaking belonged in the realm of simplicity, but also within the mysterious wisdom of the divine. Those who shared his life most intimately said that in the man they knew they encountered the ultimate simplicity and mystery that belongs in the heart of God.

Our own lives combine the basic and the profound; the simple and the mysterious. Time is taken up with the basics of washing, and eating and the many things we need to do from day to day.

But we recognize that we are more than people who simply fulfill functions and do tasks-we are thinking, reflecting, spiritual beings, who respond to experiences of depth and who can be involved in the processes of creativity. We are capable of giving and receiving love; and love itself belongs to life’s true simplicity and mystery.

Whether or not couples called Mary and Joseph, with or without donkeys, get to spend tonight at a Travel Lodge, what we celebrate tonight stimulates us to reflect on the nature of the lives we lead.

Is there enough simplicity in our lives; or have they become too complicated, too diverse, too confused in what they are about? Is there an essential clarity of purpose about what we are living for and what we hope to be and to achieve; or have we gone off centre because of unresolved situations and compromises that take away from what life is for?

Is there sufficient mystery in our lives; or are they becoming so busy, so task-orientated, so down to earth that they never rise to the heights? Are our lives in danger of drowning in the swamps of mediocrity when they have the potential to transcend the furthest reaches of the universe?

May the model of the simplicity and mysteriousness of the birth of the Christ-child challenge and encourage us to discover and rediscover the essentials of the lives for which we have each been created.